Dear friends in Christ.
What would you do if you only had 24 hours left to live? What would you do if you knew that in exactly 24 hours from this very moment, your life on earth would come to an end? How would you invest your time? Who would you want to see, one last time? What words of wisdom would you want to share? What places would you want to visit one last time? Though questions like these might seem a bit formulaic, we all recognize that they are simply designed to make us think about God’s gift of time and how we use it. For the truth is, time is truly a gift—a valuable, yet limited treasure that God places into our lives. Each morning we are credited with 1,440 minutes for us to use to spend with our God, with our family, with our friends, with our neighbors, even with the body of believers that make up the church of God. Yet, even though we are credited with 1,440 minutes each morning, our unused minutes of time to not roll over to the next day. We cannot borrow minutes from the future to add to this particular day. If we fail to use the time we’ve been given in any particular day, that time is gone and can never be retrieved. Not only that, but if you really think about it, when we go to sleep at the end of the day, we might be going to sleep for the last time in this world. We may be closing our eyes in sleep in this life only to open them by our Savior’s side in heaven, because our God has not told us how long we will live before he calls us home to heaven. Our God has not promised that we will a tomorrow. In essence, our God has orchestrated it that we live only 24 hours at a time!
Yet, how often don’t we spend our time in ways that suggest that we will live forever? How often don’t we find ourselves telling our children, tomorrow, tomorrow, and yet when tomorrow comes we still don’t have the time that we promised for them? How often don’t we find ourselves trapped in the cycle of the urgent, rushing from one thing to the next until we finally make it home, exhausted, with barely enough energy to heat something in microwave and collapse in front of the TV? How often don’t we find ourselves too busy reading the paper, listening to the radio, watching TV, or doing any number of other things, that we simply don’t take the time we need to grow and develop our relationships with our spouse, or our children, our friends, our relatives, our neighbors, our fellow members of the body of Christ, and especially with our God himself? How often don’t we find that we can make time for all the things that we really want to do, but we simply aren’t able to find time for the things that are most important for our lives?
Well, if you’ve ever felt that way, turn with me now to Joshua 24:1, and we’ll here Joshua himself calling on us to change. Now, as you are turning to Joshua 24:1 like always, here comes the context, the background. The 40 years of wandering in the wilderness had come to an end. The Israelites had finally taken possession of the land the Lord promised to Abraham 500 years earlier. Joshua gathered the people in the town of Shechem, which was the very place the Lord had given a 75 year-old Abraham the promise that Abraham’s descendants would be given this land. (Genesis 12:4-7). Shechem was also the place where Jacob and his family had buried all their household gods, after the Lord had appeared to him. (Genesis 35:1-5) Now, as Joshua stands before the community of Israel he is calling on them to renew their commitment to the Lord and in their commitment put the Lord first by making time for him. Take a look with me at Joshua 24:1-15
1 Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel, and they presented themselves before God. 2 Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your forefathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River and worshiped other gods. 3 But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the River and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. I gave him Isaac, 4 and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I assigned the hill country of Seir to Esau, but Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt. 5 “ ‘Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I afflicted the Egyptians by what I did there, and I brought you out. 6 When I brought your fathers out of Egypt, you came to the sea, and the Egyptians pursued them with chariots and horsemen as far as the Red Sea. 7 But they cried to the LORD for help, and he put darkness between you and the Egyptians; he brought the sea over them and covered them. You saw with your own eyes what I did to the Egyptians. Then you lived in the desert for a long time. 8 “ ‘I brought you to the land of the Amorites who lived east of the Jordan. They fought against you, but I gave them into your hands. I destroyed them from before you, and you took possession of their land. 9 When Balak son of Zippor, the king of Moab, prepared to fight against Israel, he sent for Balaam son of Beor to put a curse on you. 10 But I would not listen to Balaam, so he blessed you again and again, and I delivered you out of his hand. 11 “ ‘Then you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The citizens of Jericho fought against you, as did also the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites, but I gave them into your hands. 12 I sent the hornet ahead of you, which drove them out before you—also the two Amorite kings. You did not do it with your own sword and bow. 13 So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.’ 14 “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:1-15, NIV)
In these verses Joshua took time to remind the Israelites of all the things the Lord had done for them as they traveled from Egypt to Canaan, as they wanted in the wilderness for 40 years, and as they finally entered into the Land of Canaan and claimed it as their own, in fulfillment of the Lord’s promise. Though there were still nations and peoples to be driven out of their territory, the Lord had given them rest from their constant warring and now their lives were about to change, because Joshua’s time as leader was coming to an end. Soon Joshua himself would be gathered to his people and no longer be the strong ruler and example of faith for the Israelites. So Joshua called all the people to himself there at Shechem, reminded them of all the Lord had done for them and then called on them to use their time to dedicate themselves to the Lord.
Joshua is calling on you and me today to do the same thing. He may not be calling on us to throw away the gods our forefathers worshiped, but he is calling on us to remember what the Lord has done for us as he urges us to use our time to dedicate ourselves to the Lord. For the truth is, even we, as Christians, need to be reminded of what the Lord our God has done because even our memories can become fuzzy. Even we, who know just how important it is to gather regularly to feast on the Flesh and Blood of our Savior, can become complacent in our spiritual lives. Even we can become indifferent in our worship lives, simply going through the motions of the liturgy and not really paying attention to what is going on. Even we can begin to feel that we are better than others or simply deserve more from the Lord because we put our time in each week or we pay our money each month. Even we can begin to think that if we simply focus on accomplishing the bare minimum, we should be blessed with the biggest and the best reward. This is This is why Joshua is encouraging us to remember all that the Lord has done for us, so that we might once again dedicate ourselves to the Lord.
If you think about it, what better message could there be for us today! What better message could there be for us than to consider all the ways the Lord has blessed us as we study his Word today! For the truth is, he is the one who has given us this great land in which we are free to worship him in the way that we have chosen. He is the one who has blessed us with this wonderful church where we can gather each week to hear about Jesus our Savior and how he freed us from our sins. Though this congregation started as a basement church, we now use that basement as a place to teach our children the precious truths of God’s Word in Sunday school. Literally, on top of that, the Lord has blessed us with a wonderful fellowship hall where we are able to gather each week for Bible Study for the strengthening of our faith as adults, and where enjoy sumptuous meals, potlucks and fellowship with each other. In addition to that it is the Lord who has blessed us with our childcare center, through which many children have heard the word of God and come to faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior!
These are but a few of the reasons that Joshua is calling on us to dedicate ourselves to the Lord today! For it is the Lord who has not only provided for our spiritual needs, it is the Lord who has also provided for our physical needs! Just try to count the times that you went hungry or thirsty because you really had nothing to eat or drink in your house. He is the one who has blessed our town with a grocery store, convenience stores, a video store, a red box, a blue box, and if I counted correctly 10 different places in Le Sueur, a lone, where we can go out to eat if we don’t feel like eating at home. He is the one who has blessed us with the vehicles we have, regardless of the shape they are in, the places we live, and the friends we have. But the best of all the blessings the Lord our God has given us is by far the love he showered upon us by giving us his Son. For when we remember how the Lord showed his great love for us by sending his one and only Son to be our Savior; when we remember how Jesus willingly gave his life to forgive our sins and how he rose again to guarantee eternal life to us; when we remember all those things that the Lord our God has done for us, we cannot help but dedicate our lives to him. When we remember all that the Lord our God has done for us throughout all the days of our lives, we cannot help but choose to serve him with our lives.
It is so true, once we begin to think about and remember all that the Lord has done for us, we cannot help but be moved by his love to dedicate ourselves to him and choose to serve him with our lives. This, in fact, is what happened with the Israelites. For as soon as Joshua had finished reminding them of all that the Lord had done for them, he called on them and said: “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the 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 forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD. (Joshua 24:14-15).
This is what Joshua is calling on us to do. He is calling on us to dedicate ourselves to the Lord. He is calling on us to make time for the Lord, and he is calling on us to throw away all the other gods that steal our time and keep us from dedicating ourselves to the Lord. Now, in your bulletins, is a half sheet of paper titled, “Now fear the Lord… (Josh 24:14).” Take that out and start writing on it all the different “gods” that have kept you from dedicating yourself to the Lord—gods of anger, greed, frustration, malice; gods of discontent, gossip, selfishness, pride; gods of pleasure, TV, Internet, PSP, Nintendo, x-box, youtube, facebook, twitter, sports, or whatever it might be. Write them all down as you think of them, no matter what they might be. Write them down as we conclude the sermon, even as they come to you during the rest of the service. Then, as we leave the church we will throw them all away in a garbage can in the narthex. As soon as the last person has thrown his or her gods, I will personally close the bag, tie it tight and discard it so that no one need to be afraid that someone will read what you wrote.
So then, as you continue dedicating yourself to the Lord, let me end by asking you a question: “What are you going to do with the rest of the time that the Lord has given you on this day, which could very well be the last day of your life on the earth?
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN
Showing posts with label Dedication. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dedication. Show all posts
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Dedicate Yourselves to the Lord (Joshua 24:1-2, 14-18
Dear friends in Christ.
Over the past few weeks I’ve been reading a book entitled The Essential 55. In this book educator, Ron Clark, lists and explains a collection of 55 amazingly effective rules that he has used to become an extraordinary teacher. Though when I first began reading this book I thought it might be something to help me become a better teacher of Bible Studies and confirmation class, as I read, I was amazed at this man’s dedication to his students. Throughout his book, Mr. Clark tells story after story of how his goal in teaching is to care for the children in his classroom, give them a safe environment in which to learn, and help them to grow not only as students but in every aspect of life. He tells stories of how he will do anything he can to get and keep the students attention so that he can be sure that they are learning, and because of his dedication to his students, his students love him and cherish him because of what he has done for them, and because of his dedication to them, they choose to follow his rules because they too are dedicated to him. Well, as Christians, we are, in many ways, the class to which the Lord our God is dedicated. The Lord is the one who has done amazingly incredible things to get and to keep our attention, and today as we study the text before us, we will see his amazing dedication to us. For as we hear Joshua speaking to the Israelites, we will be reminded of all that the Lord has done for us, and as we are reminded of that, we will be moved to choose to serve the Lord with our lives as we seek to dedicate ourselves to the Lord
As our text opens today, this is exactly what Joshua was encouraging the Israelites to do. He was reminding them of all that the Lord had done for them throughout their lives and calling on them to dedicate themselves to the Lord as they entered a new aspect of their lives! For the truth is, the Israelites were at a turning point. They had claimed the Land the Lord had given them, they had divided it into the shares of their inheritance, and they had begun dwelling in the portions of the land they had conquered. Though there were still nations and peoples to be driven out of their territory, the Lord had given them rest from their constant warring and now their lives were about to change, because Joshua’s time as leader was coming to an end. Soon Joshua himself would be gathered to his people and no longer be the strong ruler and example of faith for the Israelites. So Joshua called all the people to himself there at Shechem and as our text tells us: “He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel, and they presented themselves before God.” (Joshua 24:1)
Now, as all the elders and officials of Israel stood before him, Joshua began to remind them how it was the Lord who took Abraham from a foreign land, settling him in the land of Canaan, making him prosperous, and promising one day to give the land to his children. It was the Lord who brought forth Isaac and Jacob, making Abraham even more prosperous and giving to those sons the same promise he gave to their father. It was the Lord who went with Jacob as he and his family went down to Egypt, and it was the Lord who delivered his people from that land of slavery with a mighty hand and outstretched arm. It was the Lord who provided food and water, clothing and shoes for his people as they traveled through the wilderness for those forty years. It was the Lord who drove out the nations before the Israelites and gave them the land they were living in. And now, because of all the great things the Lord had done for them, Joshua calls on his people to dedicate themselves to the Lord.
Joshua is calling on you and me today to do the same thing. He may not be calling on us to throw away the gods our forefathers worshiped, but he is calling on us to remember what the Lord has done for us as he urges us to dedicate ourselves to the Lord. For the truth is, even we, as Christians, need to be reminded of what the Lord our God has done because even our memories can become fuzzy. Even we, who know just how important it is to gather regularly to feast on the Flesh and Blood of our Savior, can become complacent in our spiritual lives. Even we can become indifferent in our worship lives, simply going through the motions of the liturgy and not really paying attention to what is going on. Even we can begin to feel that we are better than others or simply deserve more from the Lord because we put our time in each week or we pay our money each month. Even we can begin to think that if we simply focus on accomplishing the bare minimum, we should be blessed with the biggest and the best reward. This is This is why Joshua is encouraging us to remember all that the Lord has done for us, so that we might once again dedicate ourselves to the Lord.
If you think about it, what better message could there be for us today! What better message could there be for us than to consider all the ways the Lord has blessed us as we study his Word today! For the truth is, he is the one who has given us this great land in which we are free to worship him in the way that we have chosen. He is the one who has blessed us with this wonderful church where we can gather each week to hear about Jesus our Savior and how he freed us from our sins. Though this congregation started as a basement church, we now use that basement as a place to teach our children the precious truths of God’s Word in Sunday school, as we will once again be starting next Sunday. Literally, on top of that, the Lord has blessed us with a wonderful fellowship hall where we are able to gather each week for Bible Study for the strengthening of our faith as adults, and where enjoy sumptuous meals, potlucks and fellowship with each other. In addition to that it is the Lord who has blessed us with our childcare center, through which many children have heard the word of God and come to faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior!
These are but a few of the reasons that Joshua is calling on us to dedicate ourselves to the Lord today! For it is the Lord who has not only provided for our spiritual needs, it is the Lord who has also provided for our physical needs! Just try to count the times that you went hungry or thirsty because you really had nothing to eat or drink in your house. He is the one who has blessed our town with a grocery store, convenience stores, video store, and a good number of restaurants to choose from. He is the one who has blessed us with the vehicles we have, regardless of the shape they are in, the places we live, and the friends we have. But the best of all the blessings the Lord our God has given us is by far the love he showered upon us by giving us his Son. For when we remember how the Lord showed his great love for us by sending his one and only Son to be our Savior; when we remember how Jesus willingly gave his life to forgive our sins and how he rose again to guarantee eternal life to us; when we remember all those things that the Lord our God has done for us, we cannot help but dedicate our lives to him. When we remember all that the Lord our God has done for us throughout all the days of our lives, we cannot help but choose to serve him with our lives.
It is so true, once we begin to think about and remember all that the Lord has done for us, we cannot help but be moved by his love to dedicate ourselves to him and choose to serve him with our lives. This, in fact, is what happened with the Israelites. For as soon as Joshua had finished reminding them of all that the Lord had done for them, he called on them and said: “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the 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 forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD. (Joshua 24:14-15).
With these words, Joshua was calling on the Israelites to make a choice. He was calling on them to choose the service of the Lord or to choose the service of idols. For Joshua, himself, the choice was obvious. As he had faithfully served the Lord all the days of his life, he planned to continue doing so until his dying day. However, when it came to the Israelites, their history spoke of a different story. Their history told the story of a people who were constantly turning away from the living God so that they might run after gods made of metal and stone. They were constantly ignoring the voice of the true God so that they might listen to the lies of false gods. Yet, even though this was their history, as Joshua stood before them, calling on them to make a choice between dedication and desecration, to their credit the Israelites chose dedication. For our text tells us, they replied: “Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods! It was the LORD our God himself who brought us and our fathers up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. And the LORD drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the LORD, because he is our God.” (Joshua 24:16-18).
This is the choice Joshua has placed before us today. He has placed before us the choice of dedicating our lives to the Lord’s service or dedicating our lives to any god other than the Lord. It’s not that he is asking us to make a decision for Christ, or even accept Jesus into our hearts. Rather, he is speaking to us as ChristiansChristians who have been called to faith by the working of the Holy Spirit in our hearts through the Word of Godand he is encouraging us to dedicate our lives to the Lord’s service. Now, this by no means, means that we have to all run out and become pastors, teachers, or even missionaries in the Lord’s kingdom! But what it does mean is that we spend our lives serving the Lord in the station of life into which he has placed us. In fact, this is the very point Luther made as he included his Table of Duties in the Catechism. He writes, Are you a father or mother? Then bring your children up in the training and admonition of the Lord! Are you a son or daughter? Then show your parents honor and respect. Are you an employer? Then treat your workers fairly out of love for the Lord. Are you an employee? Then work for you boss as if you were working for the Lord. Are you a Christian? Then continue reading and studying the Word of God so that your faith might be built up in him. Continue to pray to the Lord on the regular basis, speaking to him with prayers and praises. This is the Lord’s will for our lives, and this is the road that leads, by faith, to eternal life.
So then let me call on each of you today as Joshua called on the Israelites some 30 centuries ago: “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods of anger, greed, frustration, and malice that you have carried around with you all your lives. Throw away the gods of discontent, gossip, selfishness, and pride that you keep hidden in your heart of hearts, 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 of self and pleasure, or the gods of the Americans, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD. I pray that you will heed this call and dedicate yourselves to the Lord, seeking to serve him with every aspect of your lives!
Though dedication to the Lord is not a road that is easy to take, it is the road we as Christians do seek to travel. Though it is filled with troubles, tribulations, hardships, and heart aches. But even though it is filled with all of those, it is the road that leads to the eternal joys and bliss of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Savior. That is the very thing Mr. Ron Clark found out about teaching, and yet, because he has dedicated himself to that field, there are many students who have grown under his care. We too have grown under the dedicated care of our heavenly Father who has blessed us in so many ways. May we always remember what he has done for us and chose to serve him with our lives as we now dedicate ourselves to the Lord our God.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN
Over the past few weeks I’ve been reading a book entitled The Essential 55. In this book educator, Ron Clark, lists and explains a collection of 55 amazingly effective rules that he has used to become an extraordinary teacher. Though when I first began reading this book I thought it might be something to help me become a better teacher of Bible Studies and confirmation class, as I read, I was amazed at this man’s dedication to his students. Throughout his book, Mr. Clark tells story after story of how his goal in teaching is to care for the children in his classroom, give them a safe environment in which to learn, and help them to grow not only as students but in every aspect of life. He tells stories of how he will do anything he can to get and keep the students attention so that he can be sure that they are learning, and because of his dedication to his students, his students love him and cherish him because of what he has done for them, and because of his dedication to them, they choose to follow his rules because they too are dedicated to him. Well, as Christians, we are, in many ways, the class to which the Lord our God is dedicated. The Lord is the one who has done amazingly incredible things to get and to keep our attention, and today as we study the text before us, we will see his amazing dedication to us. For as we hear Joshua speaking to the Israelites, we will be reminded of all that the Lord has done for us, and as we are reminded of that, we will be moved to choose to serve the Lord with our lives as we seek to dedicate ourselves to the Lord
As our text opens today, this is exactly what Joshua was encouraging the Israelites to do. He was reminding them of all that the Lord had done for them throughout their lives and calling on them to dedicate themselves to the Lord as they entered a new aspect of their lives! For the truth is, the Israelites were at a turning point. They had claimed the Land the Lord had given them, they had divided it into the shares of their inheritance, and they had begun dwelling in the portions of the land they had conquered. Though there were still nations and peoples to be driven out of their territory, the Lord had given them rest from their constant warring and now their lives were about to change, because Joshua’s time as leader was coming to an end. Soon Joshua himself would be gathered to his people and no longer be the strong ruler and example of faith for the Israelites. So Joshua called all the people to himself there at Shechem and as our text tells us: “He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel, and they presented themselves before God.” (Joshua 24:1)
Now, as all the elders and officials of Israel stood before him, Joshua began to remind them how it was the Lord who took Abraham from a foreign land, settling him in the land of Canaan, making him prosperous, and promising one day to give the land to his children. It was the Lord who brought forth Isaac and Jacob, making Abraham even more prosperous and giving to those sons the same promise he gave to their father. It was the Lord who went with Jacob as he and his family went down to Egypt, and it was the Lord who delivered his people from that land of slavery with a mighty hand and outstretched arm. It was the Lord who provided food and water, clothing and shoes for his people as they traveled through the wilderness for those forty years. It was the Lord who drove out the nations before the Israelites and gave them the land they were living in. And now, because of all the great things the Lord had done for them, Joshua calls on his people to dedicate themselves to the Lord.
Joshua is calling on you and me today to do the same thing. He may not be calling on us to throw away the gods our forefathers worshiped, but he is calling on us to remember what the Lord has done for us as he urges us to dedicate ourselves to the Lord. For the truth is, even we, as Christians, need to be reminded of what the Lord our God has done because even our memories can become fuzzy. Even we, who know just how important it is to gather regularly to feast on the Flesh and Blood of our Savior, can become complacent in our spiritual lives. Even we can become indifferent in our worship lives, simply going through the motions of the liturgy and not really paying attention to what is going on. Even we can begin to feel that we are better than others or simply deserve more from the Lord because we put our time in each week or we pay our money each month. Even we can begin to think that if we simply focus on accomplishing the bare minimum, we should be blessed with the biggest and the best reward. This is This is why Joshua is encouraging us to remember all that the Lord has done for us, so that we might once again dedicate ourselves to the Lord.
If you think about it, what better message could there be for us today! What better message could there be for us than to consider all the ways the Lord has blessed us as we study his Word today! For the truth is, he is the one who has given us this great land in which we are free to worship him in the way that we have chosen. He is the one who has blessed us with this wonderful church where we can gather each week to hear about Jesus our Savior and how he freed us from our sins. Though this congregation started as a basement church, we now use that basement as a place to teach our children the precious truths of God’s Word in Sunday school, as we will once again be starting next Sunday. Literally, on top of that, the Lord has blessed us with a wonderful fellowship hall where we are able to gather each week for Bible Study for the strengthening of our faith as adults, and where enjoy sumptuous meals, potlucks and fellowship with each other. In addition to that it is the Lord who has blessed us with our childcare center, through which many children have heard the word of God and come to faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior!
These are but a few of the reasons that Joshua is calling on us to dedicate ourselves to the Lord today! For it is the Lord who has not only provided for our spiritual needs, it is the Lord who has also provided for our physical needs! Just try to count the times that you went hungry or thirsty because you really had nothing to eat or drink in your house. He is the one who has blessed our town with a grocery store, convenience stores, video store, and a good number of restaurants to choose from. He is the one who has blessed us with the vehicles we have, regardless of the shape they are in, the places we live, and the friends we have. But the best of all the blessings the Lord our God has given us is by far the love he showered upon us by giving us his Son. For when we remember how the Lord showed his great love for us by sending his one and only Son to be our Savior; when we remember how Jesus willingly gave his life to forgive our sins and how he rose again to guarantee eternal life to us; when we remember all those things that the Lord our God has done for us, we cannot help but dedicate our lives to him. When we remember all that the Lord our God has done for us throughout all the days of our lives, we cannot help but choose to serve him with our lives.
It is so true, once we begin to think about and remember all that the Lord has done for us, we cannot help but be moved by his love to dedicate ourselves to him and choose to serve him with our lives. This, in fact, is what happened with the Israelites. For as soon as Joshua had finished reminding them of all that the Lord had done for them, he called on them and said: “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the 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 forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD. (Joshua 24:14-15).
With these words, Joshua was calling on the Israelites to make a choice. He was calling on them to choose the service of the Lord or to choose the service of idols. For Joshua, himself, the choice was obvious. As he had faithfully served the Lord all the days of his life, he planned to continue doing so until his dying day. However, when it came to the Israelites, their history spoke of a different story. Their history told the story of a people who were constantly turning away from the living God so that they might run after gods made of metal and stone. They were constantly ignoring the voice of the true God so that they might listen to the lies of false gods. Yet, even though this was their history, as Joshua stood before them, calling on them to make a choice between dedication and desecration, to their credit the Israelites chose dedication. For our text tells us, they replied: “Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods! It was the LORD our God himself who brought us and our fathers up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. And the LORD drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the LORD, because he is our God.” (Joshua 24:16-18).
This is the choice Joshua has placed before us today. He has placed before us the choice of dedicating our lives to the Lord’s service or dedicating our lives to any god other than the Lord. It’s not that he is asking us to make a decision for Christ, or even accept Jesus into our hearts. Rather, he is speaking to us as ChristiansChristians who have been called to faith by the working of the Holy Spirit in our hearts through the Word of Godand he is encouraging us to dedicate our lives to the Lord’s service. Now, this by no means, means that we have to all run out and become pastors, teachers, or even missionaries in the Lord’s kingdom! But what it does mean is that we spend our lives serving the Lord in the station of life into which he has placed us. In fact, this is the very point Luther made as he included his Table of Duties in the Catechism. He writes, Are you a father or mother? Then bring your children up in the training and admonition of the Lord! Are you a son or daughter? Then show your parents honor and respect. Are you an employer? Then treat your workers fairly out of love for the Lord. Are you an employee? Then work for you boss as if you were working for the Lord. Are you a Christian? Then continue reading and studying the Word of God so that your faith might be built up in him. Continue to pray to the Lord on the regular basis, speaking to him with prayers and praises. This is the Lord’s will for our lives, and this is the road that leads, by faith, to eternal life.
So then let me call on each of you today as Joshua called on the Israelites some 30 centuries ago: “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods of anger, greed, frustration, and malice that you have carried around with you all your lives. Throw away the gods of discontent, gossip, selfishness, and pride that you keep hidden in your heart of hearts, 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 of self and pleasure, or the gods of the Americans, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD. I pray that you will heed this call and dedicate yourselves to the Lord, seeking to serve him with every aspect of your lives!
Though dedication to the Lord is not a road that is easy to take, it is the road we as Christians do seek to travel. Though it is filled with troubles, tribulations, hardships, and heart aches. But even though it is filled with all of those, it is the road that leads to the eternal joys and bliss of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Savior. That is the very thing Mr. Ron Clark found out about teaching, and yet, because he has dedicated himself to that field, there are many students who have grown under his care. We too have grown under the dedicated care of our heavenly Father who has blessed us in so many ways. May we always remember what he has done for us and chose to serve him with our lives as we now dedicate ourselves to the Lord our God.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN
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