But if it is unpleasing in your sight to serve the LORD, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD!”If it seems evil to you to serve Yahweh, choose today whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh.”And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.And if it seem evil unto you to serve Jehovah, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve Jehovah.
9 sermons cite this verse
… miracles after all the faithfulness of God Joshua witnessed one by one by one them turn and follow other gods if you've heard Bibles turn with me to the book of Joshua Joshua chapter 24 verse 15 It says this, but if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But it's for me and my household. We will serve the Lord. No Christian wakes up one morning and says, hey, guess what, God? You're not the center of my life. Hey, guess what, God? I'm no longer going to serve you. But this is exactly what the Israelites were doing. And if we're not careful, we can fall into the same trap. Today, I wanna show us some ways that we can identify areas in our lives where we can fall into that trap and how we can prevent it. …
As a nation of free men, we must live through all time or die by suicide. Lincoln, amazing. Paraphrase, Joshua 24, verses 14 to 15. Joshua said, you guys want to goof off? You want to play marbles with God? Here's the deal. You guys are all messed up because you're worshiping the God of your fathers, all those pagan gods from the Amorites to the Hittites to all of those Babylonian deities. You want to worship those gods? Go do it. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. That's what Joshua said. Joshua, the leader. Joshua, the commander in chief. John Adams said this. The general principles on which, this is amazing, the fathers. You know, in his day, what's he talking about? The fathers, the pilgrim fathers. You know how we have John Adams and those dudes as our founding fathers? They had the pilgrim fathers as their founding fathers. And if you want to know what they thought, go read the Mayflower Compact. It's two paragraphs. You'll make it. It's amazing. …
… Now therefore fear the Lord, serve him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the river and in Egypt. Serve the Lord. And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your father served that were on the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. And that's all to set up this amazing statement. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Let's pray. Father, we ask that you would use this time in truly a mighty way, Lord, that your word would land upon good soil in our hearts today. That you would make us more like you through your word, in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Now, before we just get into breaking down our text It is certainly never a bad decision To examine the context surrounding a passage of scripture And in fact, it is always a good idea to do so Because when we examine the context It serves to enhance our understanding of what is really being said and keep us on track in our theology. …
… that can become distractions. I'm blown away by the fact that he refers to the gods of the Amorites. Now, I got to help you with this because you know that I got my PhD last year, not bragging, just testifying. And one of the things they teach us in the program is that you oftentimes, while reading, will go down rabbit holes. And when you go down rabbit holes, you start chasing ideas and chasing thoughts and chasing things and topics. And y'all, the word Amorite, it grabbed me like it's never grabbed me before. And here's what blew my mind. The Amorites literally had an echo political system of gods that ran the area where they were as what was called a mountain dwelling people. They are a mountain dwelling people who dwell high up and they have fertility gods to ensure pregnancy and the perpetuation of families. They have, watch this, not just fertility gods, but they also have the gods of the weather. They have the gods of the rains. …
… We'll see. Joshua 24, verse 15. Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. You know, that is, people rack that up as a spiritual statement. Oh, it's way more than that. Because listen, in the realm of our relationship with God, tell me this, in the realm of our relationship with God as believers, are you going to tell me that these things are sacred and these things are secular and we don't touch those things and we don't speak to those things and we don't know? Listen, this church, our proximity, you may or may not know this, A lot of the people who attend this church work at Disneyland. Now, I don't work at Disneyland because I don't have enough fruit of the spirit to work at Disneyland. But there are people here who are so full of the spirit of God that they are able to work at Disneyland and be a witness. And listen, God spoke to them and they chose to obey God and to work in the magic kingdom. …
… and take responsibility for our own lives. Because God's given you a choice today. And he's going to say that specifically to us in this text, choose you this day whom you will serve. And then Joshua says, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And God's asking you today, are you willing to surrender? What we want to do is we want to say, yes, 100% I want to surrender. So be it. God. Except for this one little area over here, which I've sort of carved out and made a deal with the devil. Now, I didn't call it that because that sounds terrible. I just said, well, it's a weakness or it's a, you know, part of my family's history and story or it's not that big a deal. But there's this one area over here that I made a deal with other people living in the land. And God is saying, surrender it all today. Surrender it all today. step in to the abundance of the promised land. …
… is I declare this first of all over my family as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. I want you to say that with me. As for me and my house we will serve the Lord. Just for this one statement just close your eyes and hold the cup before the Lord because you're holding out the legal basis for that decree. Let's say it again together. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And then I pray. I pray for each one by name. We don't have time for you to cover your entire family line, but you can cover some part of your family in just a moment. And what I pray is I pray for three very specific things day after day after day. Number one, God, we will serve you in purity. Holiness is important. We will walk in purity. Number two, we will do so with passion. We're going to be all in. Everything about us is in this devotion to you. …
… thank you father so this is my my big confession that i make when i hold the cup before the lord as for me and my house we will serve the lord that's my decree i prophesy i prophesy in my house in my bedroom in my kitchen wherever i'm at i prophesy if i'm out on the property Sometimes I'll take communion as I walk on our land. And I just prophesy, declare, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Every single family member has been set aside by the grace of God to serve him well. I want you to do that right now. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Amen. Amen. let's receive the blood of Jesus now Wow. It's the meal of absolute victory. It's the meal of absolute triumph. I pray that today would be a day where God initiates a series of encounters. Some of you have been tormented by stuff. You've given place to fear. …
… And my decree, my confession at this point is, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Say that with me. as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. I want you to declare it like you actually believe that this is the gospel truth right here. All right. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Say it again. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Now what I do is I open the cup and I hold it before the Lord and I pray for specific family members. You may not be able to pray for everyone. I'm going to give you just a minute or two. But in fact, let me tell you what I want you to do. I would like for you to take a minute to pray for family members by name. And this is what I do. I just declare, I plead the blood of Jesus over Eric and Candace, over Kennedy and Selah. And this is my prayer, Jeremiah 24, give them a heart to know you. …