Joshua 24 has a restating of the Covenant as Joshua nears the end of life and ministry. Most know well verse 15″choose this day who you will serve…as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” That’s probably the way most of you remember it. We know it like that, or do we fully get this. This week I was reading it in the CSB and it renders this Hebrew word abad as “worship”. Choose for yourselves today who you will worship. v14 had reminded them that they previously served or worshipped other gods in Egypt and had seen others worshipped or served by the Amorites. The NLT uses BOTH English words “worship” and “serve” to render this same word, abad, in v14 when he says they should put away these other gods worshiped , and Serve the Lord.

I like using the word worship because Service IS Worship not just WORK. Sometimes we even substitute working for God, Service, for Worship.

And so back in Joshua 24 – after Joshua says choose for yourselves today who you will worship… my family, we will worship the Lord

And they respond strongly – “we will certainly not abandon the Lord to worship other gods!” – And then give the long list of the things God has done for them and ensures they are going to serve God. And then aged Joshua, a veteran of slavery in Egypt for 40 years, 40 years a servant of Moses, and 30 years as Leader of the Children of Israel, replies as I have often done with people who come to me and say “I’m going to serve the Lord”. He says “you can’t serve / worship because it’s HARD.” Worshipping the Lord / Serving the Lord is a Dangerous Decision. It is a Life Changer, dare we say a life crusher? It is a dream crusher, a will destroyer to Serve / Worship the Lord. V19 he says, you will not be able to worship the Lord. Why?

• Because He is a Holy God
• He is a Jealous God
• He will not forgive your transgressions
• if you abandon the Lord, he will turn against you, harm you, destory you after he has been good to you.

Serving God is Worship Act not a vocational decision. It may BE a vocation, but it is not a self-serving decision. If you think serving God is going to make your dreams come true, or get God to look the other way on your other actions, that’s not the way it works. It is HARD. He wasn’t saying that God doesn’t forgive, but that serving God isn’t a vehicle to God ignoring, leaving you alone in your “off hours”. Service is NOT a Substitute for Worship – not an Excuse for NOT Worshipping. Service is a Worship Choice that then drives action.

And then they say, “NO! We WILL Worship / Serve the Lord” – And After I had a guy ask me years ago “why are you doing this?” And I spent a long time giving him all the reasons, then ultimately I said “God won’t let me do anything else, I must do this to worship him.” He said “OK then”.

Ok Then – that’s a dangerous decision, a selfless decision – and Joshua says you are witnesses against yourselves that you yourselves have choice to worship/serve the Lord” and They said “Yes We Are”

So then he tells them

• Get rid of the foreign gods – remove false objects of worship and service. Check your calendar, check your bank statement, what drives, makes the decisions? Is it from God, toward God, or does it pull you away from God?
• turn your hearts to the Lord – that word lebab means the inner person, mind, will, and emotions, heart – your desire, decisions, direction – turn to the Lord
• he set up a stone – there need to be things in our life, on our wall, in our conversation that are reminders of our commitment to worshipfully serve the Lord. And he says then you see that stone… it will be a witness that the Lord has heard