Hope For The world - Sunday, January 22, 2023

Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray.

We are glad to see you this morning. I am not Rachel, but I will endeavor to do my best this morning. We're going to begin in just a moment with a word of prayer, and then we're going to read from Romans chapter 5 together. So let's pray. Father in heaven, I just ask that as we come to worship, as we come to hear your word, as we come to sing, as we come to gather together around the table to celebrate the good news of the gospel, as we spend time with our brothers and sisters in Christ who are such an encouragement to us, I just ask that you would be with us, that you would lighten our burdens, that you would point toward hope, that you would give us peace, that you would call us to repentance, and that you would strengthen us in your grace. So be with us this morning as we worship. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Just a couple of quick things. If you would like to partake with us in the Lord's Supper in a little bit, there are communion elements on the back table along with some sermon outlines and a sort of brief order of worship and a few announcements. if you would like to pick those up. Let's go ahead and be standing. We're going to read from Romans chapter 5, verses 1 and 2. In a few minutes, we're going to be in Joshua, the 24th chapter, and we're going to see sort of the power of God's grace, and that's what we're kind of focusing on this morning. So if you would read with me from Romans chapter 5. It says, "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God." This is the word of the Lord.

What's interesting is Paul, after explaining to us where we stand and that we are found in the grace of God through faith, he goes on to explain how this sort of impacts and affects our life. Not only that, but we rejoice in our suffering, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. And so Paul points us, first of all, to where we stand in grace, and then he points us to how grace is at work in our life, not just in the times when the road is easy, but the time when things are difficult. So we're going to begin this morning by singing about the goodness of Jesus as we sing about the lion and the lamb.

He's coming on the house. Kings and kings will bow down. Every chain will break. His broken hearts declare His praise. But who can stop the Lord Almighty? Our God is the Lion, the Lion of Judah. He's roaring with power and fighting our battles. Every knee will bow before Him. Our God is the Lamb, the Lamb that was slain. For the sins of the world, His blood breaks the chains. Every knee will bow before the Lion and the Lamb. Every knee will bow before Him. Open up the gates, make way before the King of Kings. The God who comes to save is here to set the captives free. Who can stop the Lord Almighty? Our God is the Lion, the Lion of Judah. He is roaring with power and fighting the battle. He will bow before Him. Our God is the Lamb, the Lamb that was slain. For the sins of the world, His blood breaks the chains.

Every knee will bow before the Lion and the Lamb. Every knee will bow before Him. Who can stop the Lord Almighty? Who can stop the Lord Almighty? Who can stop the Lord Almighty? Who can stop the Lord Almighty? Our God is the Lion, the Lion of Judah. He's roaring with power and fighting our battles. Every knee will bow before Him. Our God is the Lamb, the Lamb that was slain. For the sins of the world, His blood breaks the chains. Every knee will bow before the Lion and the Lamb. Every knee will bow before Him. We're going to right into Cornerstone.

My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest brain, but wholly trust in Jesus' name. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest brain, but wholly trust in Jesus' name. Christ alone, cornerstone, weak made strong in Savior's love through the storm. He is Lord, Lord of all.

When darkness seems to hide His face, I rest on His unchanging grace. In every light and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil. My anchor holds within the veil. Lights down low, cornerstone, weak man. In the Savior's light, through the storm, He is Lord. Lord our Lord. Christ alone, cornerstone, weak man. Strong in the Savior's light, through the storm, He is Lord. Lord our Lord. Lord our Lord. He shall come with trumpet sound. Oh, may I then in Him be found. Dressed in His righteousness alone. Faultless stand before the throne. Christ alone. Corn and stone. Weak and strong. In the Savior's love. Through the storm, He is Lord. Lord, I am Lord. You may be seated. You may be seated. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. All right. As we prepare for communion, we're going to be singing by the grace of God.

I rest my soul on Jesus when the mountains shake. I put my trust in Jesus. The moment I awake, and when my soul is lost at sea, He will be my rock. My vision be in Christ alone. This grace is all we've got. His love is like the mighty ocean. His love for me will never stop. Oh, His arms are strong enough to carry me. Threw it all by the grace of God. So I, upon His shoulders, safely brought this far. Helper of my helplessness. The King of broken hearts. His love is like the mighty ocean. His love for me will never stop. Oh, His arms are strong enough to carry me. I do it all by the grace of God. You are the passion of my life, Lord Jesus. You are the song within my soul. My strength, my hope, my all in all is You.

Jesus, You. When breath grows still and night draws near, I will not be afraid. I know the plans He has for me. He will finish at my grave. His love is like the mighty ocean. His love for me will never stop. Oh, His arms are strong enough to carry me. We meet through it all by the grace of God.

Good morning. The Lord's Supper traces its symbolic roots to the Passover meal at the time of the Exodus. It was instituted by Jesus at the time of His final meal with His disciples. The bread and the cup point to His broken body, and the shed blood are the definitive symbols of the new covenant in Christ. So that's kind of where it started, and where we get that. We remember Jesus, when He instituted the Lord's Supper, He was at a Passover feast. But today, I kept thinking about the words that we often read, and we'll read again before we partake. "Do this in remembrance of Me." And it's like, how do we do that? What does that look like? So we want to talk for just a minute about where do we look during the Lord's Supper?

You know, we're good at looking around. We're born with a knack for spotting the failure of others, and we've been conditioned to develop that skill. But that's not what we're talking about today. We're not talking about looking at others and focusing on them. We're talking about looking to Jesus, obviously. The Scriptures encourage us to look in a number of directions with our eyes of faith as we share in the Lord's Supper. First, we are to look back with gratitude to Jesus and His death at the cross. First Corinthians 11 and verse 24 says, "This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." So we're looking back to the cross. Next, we're to look around at the body of believers. With them, we share the Supper. It is something we do when we come together.

We've noticed that in verse 17 of that chapter, First Corinthians 17, when they were gathered together. And we discern the body of Christ. Verse 29 of First Corinthians 11, as we eat. It is significant that we share this meal as a community. Sharing the one bread together is a sign of our fundamental unity. First Corinthians 10 verse 17 tells us, "Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body. For we all share the one loaf." We also look up to heaven, where the risen and ascended Christ intercedes for us as our great high priest. Hebrews 4 and verse 14, one of my favorite passages, says, "Since then we have a high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses,

but we have one who in every aspect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then, with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Finally, we look forward to the day when Jesus will return. 1 Corinthians 11:26 encourages us to continue to do this until He returns. The celebration of the supper serves as a proclamation of Christ's death, which anticipates His return. Jesus Himself, when He instituted the supper, ate it in anticipation of the future. He says, "I won't do this again until I do this in the kingdom of heaven." The ultimate outworking of God's salvation plan has long been associated with the promise of a great banquet, and we find that in Isaiah and both Revelation.

So the Lord's Supper serves as a foretaste of that great banquet, even as it reminds us of the only basis of our hope for participating in it. So we look back to the death of Jesus. We look around to the body of believers who we celebrate this together with. We look up to heaven, and we know that we have someone there, that it's our advocate, that we can find mercy and grace in time of need. And then we look forward to Jesus returning. Let's think about these things as we pray, and then we partake together. Dear God in heaven, we just thank you for loving us. We thank you for sending your Son to die on our behalf. Help us each week as we partake, that we would not lose sight of that, that we would not lose our focus on you, that it would not become commonplace, but we would ever grow in our love for you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Jesus said when he had given thanks, he took the bread, he broke it, and said, "This is my body. Do this in remembrance of me." After supper, he took the cup saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me."

To God in heaven, we just pray that as we focus on you, and as we learn more about your love, that we would grow in your grace and your mercy. Help us to be able to be proclaimers of that, of what you have done in our lives. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for caring for us. In Jesus' name, amen.

One of the really, um, astonishing and breathtaking things about, um, the passage that Brandon is going to preach on this morning, is that, um, God is going to summarize six books of the Bible. Um, and Brandon has preached through a good portion of those, um, fairly recently. Um, and it's just, I don't know, really cool. Um, we're going to start in the first verse of Joshua 24. Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, the officers of Israel, and they presented themselves before God. And Joshua said to all the people, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, long ago your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor, and they served other gods. Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the river and led him

through all the land of Canaan, and made his offspring many. I gave him Isaac, and Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau, and I gave Esau the hill country of the Seher heir to possess. But Jacob and all his children went down to Egypt, and I sent Moses and Aaron. I played Egypt with what I did in the midst of it, and afterwards I brought you out. Then I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the sea, and the Egyptians pursued you farther with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea. And when they cried to the Lord, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and made the sea come upon them and cover them. And your eyes saw what I did in Egypt. And you lived in the wilderness a long time. Then I brought you to the land of the Amorites, who lived on the other side of the Jordan. They fought with you, and I gave them into your hand, and you took possession of their land, and I destroyed them before you.

Then Balak, the son of Zippor, the king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel, and he sent and invited Balaam, the son of Beor, to curse you. But I would not listen to Balaam. Indeed, he would bless you. So I delivered you out of his hand, and you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho, and the leaders of Jericho fought against you, and also the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I gave them into your hand. And I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out before you, and two kings of the Amorites. It was not by your sword or by your bow I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them.

You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant. 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. If it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods of your fathers served in the region beyond the river, or the gods of the Emirates in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. This is the word of the Lord. This verse marks a transition from kind of this picture of grace, and the grace of God. To ultimately, it kind of hits a dark turn in the very next verse. Let's dive into Joshua chapter 24. We're going to pray first.

Father in heaven, I thank you for our church. I thank you for the joy that you bring to us. I thank you for the hope that you give us, and I thank you for the peace that you move into our hearts with. I just ask that you would be with us this morning as we open your word and as we study your word, that you would change us and transform us through your word, that you would help us to see the goodness of your grace and how you have changed and transformed our hearts. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. So many of us, we may have a location that kind of brings to mind something to us that is special or is wonderful or we go back to that place over and over again out of a sense of nostalgia.

And I probably have one of the worst of those special locations. Rachel and I's very first date, we went to Chili's here in Winchester, so it was like, you know, it was super romantic. And to make it even better, I brought one of my best friends along as well. I was like, "Hey, me and my buddy are here. It's nice to see you." And I laughed thinking, "Hey man, this went really, really, really good." Now, after several years and almost a decade of marriage, we can look back on that and laugh. And that's one of those kind of things that says a lot about who we are, mainly about who I am as a person. But it's one of those kind of memories that defines us. And so every year we do this kind of fancy Valentine's Day dinner with the kids.

And we come up with a ridiculous menu where we come up with elaborate names for normal everyday food. And I always go to Chili's and get some chips and salsa, because Rachel was very adamant it wasn't going to be a date, so she was going to get her own food. And so we get together, and probably rightly so, when your date shows up with his best buddy. And so we get that as a reminder, and it kind of brings joy in how, even at a really bad beginning, something good can come out of. And so this morning we're coming to one of those places, biblically, one of those places that has a whole lot of backstory to it. This place at Shechem, and not just the place, but the trees of Shechem, which is a remarkable thing to me. This gets mentioned more than once in the Bible.

In Genesis chapter 12, God has brought Abraham away from where he has been born and where he has lived, and has brought him into Canaan, and ends up at a place called Shechem. And we read this in Genesis 12:6, that Abraham passed through the land of Shechem to the oak of the terabith. It's a type of tree of morah. And at that time, the Canaanites were in the land, and then God will appear to Abraham here by this tree at Shechem, and will say to him, "I'm going to give you all of this land." Later on, Abraham's grandson, Jacob, will come back to this land and feuding with his brother. He will make peace with his brother, and he will encamp at Shechem, and he will erect an altar to worship God. And two chapters later, we'll find Jacob and his family getting ready to move on from Shechem. Before they do, Jacob will do something remarkable. He will say, "Put away the foreign gons that are among you, and pierce by yourselves, and change your garments.

Now let's rise and go to Bethel, and I will make there an altar to God, who answers me in the day of distress." And so here in verse 4, it says, "They gave to Jacob all the foreign gods they had, the rings that were in their ears. Jacob hid, or buried them, under the terabith tree that was near Shechem." And so if you're following along, this town, specifically these trees, are where Abraham first built an altar to God. And this town and these trees are where Jacob purifies his house, they get rid of all of their idols, all of the jewelry that was symbolic of pagan religion, and bury them there amongst these trees. And then we come to Joshua chapter 24, and we find that the place where Israel is, is a place full of history.

And it's a place where these trees, to God's people, symbolize their history and show what God has done. This is the place where God has promised to give them the land. It's a place where Jacob has rededicated himself and his family to God, and it is now the place where Joshua will renew the covenant of Israel with God's people. And so it's here at this place that is filled with all of this history, Joshua will, first of all, remind God's people of the history of God's good grace throughout their life. And Brant was exactly right. Five books of the Bible sort of summed up in just a few verses, four specific examples of God's grace that Joshua points to. First of all, he points to God's grace and the calling and the leading and the providing for Abraham. And he will talk about

how he called Abraham, and don't miss the fact that he talks about how Abraham and his family worshiped false thoughts. God calls Abraham not because he is good, but he calls Abraham in his grace to make him good. And he brings him out, and God provides, and God gives him a link, and God gives him a family. We want to see that this is grace, not that Abraham earned or deserved it. From there, we see God's grace in the rescue from Egypt, through the Red Sea and the plagues that accompany it. And we see God's grace in the wilderness as he provides, and as they face enemies that seek to attack them. And then we see God's grace in the conquest of the land. That God is doing this over and over again in these verses.

God will say, "I gave," or "I did," or "I sent." The focus of these verses is not on what the people of Israel have done, but what God has done on their behalf. One of my favorite pictures is in Joshua 24:12, where it says this, "Sent the hornet before you, which drove them out before you. The two kings, the Amorites, it was not by your sword or by your bow, but rather the hornets." And so if you ever watch a cartoon where some guy's over there poking a bee, right? This cloud of bees comes out, it's all swirling around, and it goes after the guy, and he just takes off and ends up, you know, hiding or trying to jump into the water to avoid the bees. It's kind of a humorous illustration that God is using to show

that it wasn't due to the goodness or the strength of the power of Israel, but God was the one who was directing. And as these tribes ran, they're running not from the power of Israel, but from the power of God. And what we see is what Joshua is emphasizing. It is through God's grace, not the people's goodness, that God has done these things. Whether in Abraham, or in Egypt, or in the deliverance from Egypt, or in the wilderness, or in the conquest of the land, that God has been at work for the good of his people. And at the center of these things, I want you to see that it's God, that God takes, God leads, God makes, God gives. And it's summed up in verse 13 like this, "I gave you a land which you had not labored, cities that you had

not built," you dwell in them, "you ate the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards you did not plant." The emphasis here is not on what God's people have done, but what God has done for his people through his grace. And one of the things that we see as we look at this grace, we see that, well, grace is from the goodness of God, and it is free, and it comes to undeserving people. It's not always easy. It doesn't always make the road smooth. That God's grace, well, through us, through those difficulties, doesn't always lead us in the place where we think, in our wisdom, it should go. You see this in verse 4. And Isaac, this is God speaking, "And to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau," so he says, "I gave him the sons, and to Esau I gave the hill country of Seir to possess, but to Jacob and his children

they went down to Egypt." So there's this intentional contrast, right? He says, "To one of the children I gave the hill country," and the implication here is that Esau goes, he takes his land, he's done. But to Jacob, what happens? He goes down into Egypt. We might say, "How is it God's grace that they go to Egypt? How is it God's grace that they are in captivity? How is it in God's grace that they are pursued by the army in Egypt? How is it in God's grace that they struggle in the wilderness? Why couldn't it have just been like Esau? Why couldn't they just have taken their inheritance in that moment? It's because in God's grace what we find is not identifiable blessings, but we see God's grace when He corrects us. We see God's

grace as He matures us. You see, God's grace, one of the purposes of God's grace, isn't just to give us something and leave us alone, but it's to correct us. And if you think through these examples of grace, how did Jacob end up in Egypt? Was it because they said, "Hey, let's all go to Egypt." What happens if the young guy by the name of Joseph, he's one of the youngest of his brothers, in fact the second youngest, goes to visit his other brothers at Shechem. What do they do? They plan to kill him, and they're killing him, they just kidnap him, and sell him into slavery in Egypt. And they end up, as clay and sand comes, they end up going to Egypt, they find Joseph there. At the end of their line, Joseph will

say this, "You meant this as evil against me." Right? You sought to do evil against me, but God, in His grace, what did He do? He turned it into something good that many people might be kept alarmed. Why did Israel spend 50 years in the wilderness, all this extra time? Extra 40 years in the wilderness? Because God's grace was correcting them. He brings them to the land, and they say, "No, we're not going in." Right? So what you find is that God's grace is patient, even when we decide not to walk in it. And part of the reason you find this long story is because God has laid out a road for His people, and you and I are constantly trying to detour into our own ideas or our own plans or after our own desires. And in His grace, God

brings us back to where we should be. God's grace corrects us. We also find that God is developing character and maturity, not just as reward. So as a dad with kids, I don't want to just get them to the point where I can say, "You've been at my house long enough. You're old enough. Get out of my house." Right? With my children, I want to seek to develop them into people who are strong and good and responsible and who love God with all their hearts and who love their neighbor as themselves. I don't just want to get them to a point where I can say, "Go about your business as a dad." Right? I want to teach them and I want to see them grow. And part of the reason that you have this 400 plus year detour

between Esau and Jacob and their families is because God is growing in teaching and maturing His people. You see, grace doesn't always take us the easy way, but I will say this: it takes us the way that is best for us. And if I've learned anything about myself, I would rather have the easy way than the best way. And what God does is against our laziness or our selfish desires, He says, "In my grace, I will bring you the way that will correct you and bring you to maturity." But in these chapters, we also see how God's grace is for everyone. And if you think back to Abraham, who is not a perfect man, he's a man of faith, but he also gives away his wife twice. His son Isaac plays favorites with his son, and his family ends up broken.

Jacob is a liar and a cheat, and lives until God confronts him. And they have a wrestling match where his hip is dislocated, but Jacob is humbled enough to see the goodness of God. His sons sell one of their brothers into slavery in Egypt. As Moses comes to lead the people out, they say, "Who are you that you should speak for us?" And at the Red Sea, they panic and want to turn back, and God opens the Red Sea. On the other side, they're thirsty. God gives them water. And they say, "Even though you've opened the Red Sea, even though you're going to swore, now we're hungry. Did you bring us out here?" A constant cacophony of complaints, and God loves them and is gracious towards them, even while correcting them and maturing them through the wilderness.

You see, there is no sign of the grace of God. The first thing we see in this chapter is that God's grace in the past has been poured out upon His people. And now the point that Joshua is trying to make is not just simply a reiteration of historical facts, but he wants them to see how it impacts them now. Not just look at what God has done in the past, but how does that past now impact your future? And so Joshua will then present them with this choice. You see, as a result of being reminded of God's grace, Joshua is going to call his people to serve Him. Now therefore, this is verse 14, "Fear the Lord. Serve Him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your father served beyond the river, and serve the Lord."

Right? Four commands Joshua gives them in relation to serving God. First of all, it's fear the Lord. And when he talks about fearing the Lord, he's not talking about being startled. So some of our kids are going through a phase right now where they're trying to sneak up on their dad. Thankfully, so far, they've been really not as quiet as they could be, so I hear them coming. Right? They want to jump out of somewhere, and they want to startle me and go, "We scared you." Right? That's not the thing we're talking about where you walk around the corner and God goes, "BOOM!" Right? We're not talking about being startled by God. We're also not talking about being scared of something that tries to make us run or hide. I remember the first time that I ever road-tripped as kind of an adult. We were like 18 years old, and some of my cousins and I were coming back from Iowa.

We stopped at this little, shady motel because we were all really tired. They rented a store, and we went and got some take-out. We were sitting there eating dinner, and we were watching, I think it was The X-Files at the time, and it was one of those X-Files episodes that's really dark, always rainy, and the creepy guy or whatever is coming around. I realized, you know, after three or four episodes that I'd left my backpack in the car, so I talked to the youngest cousin that was with us. I said, "Hey, get out there and get my backpack." He's like, "Absolutely not. I'm not going out there." I was like, "Well, you're not going out there. I'm not going out there. Who's going to go out there?" And so here we are, and again, we deal with this plan where they unlock the car from the window, open the door, ran out, got the backpack, and they opened the door, and I got back in, and we locked all the bolts and put a chair under the door, right?

We're not talking about that kind of fear. Although there is a fear that comes from encountering the Holy God. That's not what this is speaking of. The fear here is one of reverence and honor and holding something in esteem. So Rachel started a project last night with a bunch of her grandma's recipes. She's going to turn into a book for the family members, and sitting there looking at them, and the girls are looking at these recipes. And there's this really heartwarming, wonderful moment of all of these memories sort of pouring back, and they're being so careful, right? Because those things are precious. And you want to honor them and take care of them. And you put them in a place of special honor. When we talk about fearing God, we're not being startled, or in this case, being afraid. We're talking about reverencing Him, that we lift Him up, and that we treat Him with honor.

And the first result of seeing God's grace is that we honor Him. We fear Him. The second thing we see is that we serve the Lord sincerely, sincerely with our hearts, right? There's a difference between obedience in our action and obedience in our heart. I remember, might be the only sermon I remember from my childhood, but I remember my dad using an illustration either in a class or in a sermon, talking about obedience in the heart. And there was this little boy in school, the teacher says, "Well, you need to sit down. You won't sit down." And the teacher says, "You need to sit down." And he doesn't sit down. He says, "You need to sit down." And he sits down, but goes, "In my heart, I'm standing up." Now, I don't know what character this person could have been based upon.

It certainly was not me, right? But we all know that there is a difference between doing something with a full heart and doing something just because we have to. And one of the results of seeing the grace of God poured out around us is that we serve God not just externally like the Pharisees in the New Testament did, but we serve Him with our whole heart. We also serve the Lord faithfully. That's what Joshua said. The picture there of faithful is obedience. Being trusted to take care of what you need to do. In Nehemiah chapter 7, there's a problem in Jerusalem that people are ignoring the law of God and they're buying and selling on Sunday. So Nehemiah gets a couple of burly guys he knows are trustworthy, and he says, "On Friday night, you close the gates, and on Sunday morning, you come back up and you don't let anybody in or out of those gates."

And it says he chose these men because he knew that they were faithful, meaning that they would do what they said they would do. And they wouldn't change what was said. They wouldn't make an excuse. You see, when we see God's grace, we don't just hear what he says and serve him joyfully, but we serve him as he has commanded us. And then he will say, "Put away the gods that your fathers have served." Right? Echoes of Jacob in Genesis 31. And it means that as you're traveling, you throw it out the window, or you drop it behind you, or you bury it under a tree. And so having said, "Here is what grace looks like. Here is what grace leads to." We don't do these things to get grace, but we do these things because of God's grace.

He leads the people with a decision. Listen to what he says. "And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day who 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." And the people answered, "Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods. For it is the Lord our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt and out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went and among the people through whom we passed." "The Lord drove out before us all the peoples and the Amorites who put to the land, therefore we will serve the Lord, for He is our God."

And this is the best answer that you could possibly hope for, right? These people have finally got it. Joshua says, "Who are you going to serve?" You see God's grace, you see what that grace produces in your life, now what are you going to do? Are you going to follow God or follow somebody else?" And they enthusiastically reply with, "We will serve God." Right? After five books of the Bible of disobedience, it seems like these people have finally got it, they've finally figured it out, they've seen God's grace, and they're going to follow them with all of their hearts. But Joshua, how he responds to them is far less optimistic. Joshua will say to people, "You are not able to serve the Lord, for He is a holy God and He is a jealous God, and He will not forgive your transgression or your sins.

Take the Lord and serve foreign gods, and He will turn on you and do harm and consume you after having done your good." And he'll say, "No, we're going to serve God." You hear what Joshua says, he looks at them and says, "I don't think you can do it." He's not optimistic about what will happen. And honestly, rightfully so. One generation after the end of Joshua 24, these people are serving foreign gods. But Joshua will say, "I don't think you can." They will promise they do. And so what Joshua does, he does something remarkable. As they make this promise, "Of course we're going to serve God." Joshua will then write it down. And so, I don't know if you've ever had this experience or seen somebody in this experience, right? You have an argument, maybe through text message, and it comes out one way or another. Time goes by, and time goes by, and time goes by a little farther. And you get into a similar argument, and the person says, "Well, you said you would do this." And you say, "No, I didn't." And they say,

"Here's a screenshot of what you just said," right? That's what Joshua is literally doing to the people of Israel. He says, "You're not going to serve God." They say, "Yes, we will." And he says, "All right, let's write it down and see who's right." So he writes it down, and not just on paper, but he engraves it into stone, and he puts it on a tree, right? The same tree, or the same group of trees that Jacob likely buried the idols that his family served under. Now, this is not Joshua being passive aggressive, right? It sounds like it. We're going to do this. No, you're not. I'm going to write it down to make sure I can kind of shut it in your face later. Joshua here is not being passive aggressive. What he's trying to do is help them to see that they can't do this on their own. That the only way that they can follow God and trust in God is through the power that God gives them. They are so focused on themselves and what they have done.

In the words of Jacob, they put aside their idols, just like your great-great-great-grandfather Jacob did. Put aside their idols and buried them under the trees. I tell you to do the same. And almost everywhere else in these first five books of the Bible, when you find a command, you find an almost instantaneous, obedient response. But here he says, "Put aside your idols," and they say, "Okay, yeah, we'll do that." And then a generation later, those idols are back. You see, Joshua is trying to impress the people that serving God is more just saying that you will serve Him, right? You ever agreed to something and then instantly regretted it? For the last two weeks, I've had this reality, right? I agreed to something, and every morning at 5 a.m., I absolutely regret agreeing to it. And what he's saying to the people is, "Make sure that you are thinking this through." Right? This is more than just saying the words, right?

This has to be accompanied by a life that obeys, right? It's easy, especially when things are going well, to turn our eyes to ourselves. Moses will say to the people, he said, "When you come into the land, and God gives you wealth, and He gives you vines, and He gives you fields," he'll say this, "Beware lest you say in my heart, my power and my might have gotten me this wealth," instead of pointing to the goodness of God. And the problem that surrounds this tree, in Joshua 24, these people are saying, "Yeah, we can do this, in our strength, and in our ability, and in our power." And so Joshua, in a reenactment of Genesis 35, under a terebinth tree, will say, "Put away foreign gods," and they don't do that, so under this tree, he puts a copy of the law of God. And what we find in one generation, this covenant is broken. And Joshua doesn't get any more

cheerful from this, because immediately we move from this covenant that Joshua says, "I don't think you're going to be able to follow," to immediately the three funerals. The funeral of Joshua, the delayed by 400 years funeral for Joseph, and the funeral for Eleazar, the high priest, the son of Aaron. And it sort of ends on this dark note, right? The one who provided for us and brought salvation in the famine in Egypt, Joseph, he's dead. Joshua, who has brought us into this land and who has led us in righteousness, is dead. Eleazar, who stood between God and his people making sacrifices for the atonement of sins, he is dead, right? Our leader, our rescuer, and our priest are gone. And it seems pretty bleak. And I think in part it is intended to, so that we, as we read millennia later, we see that our strength doesn't come from ourselves, but it comes from God. And in many ways, Joshua 24 is not just an ending to the story of Joshua. It's a sign that points us forward to something better. The grace, the call to respond to grace, the free funerals, they're all a sign that God is calling us to

something better, a grace that is bigger, right? Not just a physical salvation in the wilderness, or a physical salvation from captivity, or a physical victory over enemies, but there is a grace that is coming that will bring us out of a spiritual wilderness, out of a spiritual captivity, that will bring us victory over our spiritual enemies, and that grace comes through another Joshua. In English, it's Jesus, but in Hebrew, it's Joshua. Obedience is coming deeper. Not just a surface agreement or a surface picture of what God has called us to do, but there is an obedience coming through that will cut to the heart of God's people. There is a leader, a priest, and a rescuer who will come and save His people. In Ezekiel, we read this: "I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh,

and I will give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules." And if you are a Christian this morning, right, we look to the grace that has been poured out upon us through Jesus, the grace that rescues us, the grace that leads us, the grace that has been victorious over our sins through the cross, and we're called to follow Jesus. If you're not a Christian this morning and you hear these words, know that there is grace for the hurting and for the broken, and that there is a rescuer and a deliverer who has come to save you. His name is Jesus. So if you ever have any questions about this or would like to know more, I'd be happy to talk to you at any time. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for Jesus and for grace.

I thank you for hope. I thank you for how you've changed us and changed our hearts and your spirit who dwells within us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We're going to go ahead and we're going to stand and we're going to sing "This is Amazing Grace."

Who breaks the power of sin and darkness? Whose love is mighty and so much stronger? The King of glory. The King above all kings. Who shakes the whole earth with holy thunder? Who leaves us breathless in awe and wonder? The King of glory. The King above all kings. This is amazing grace. This is unfailing love. That you would take my place. That you would bend my cross. You would lay down your life. That I would be set free. Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me. Who brings our chaos back into order? Who makes the orphan a son and daughter? The King of glory. The King above all kings. Who rules the nations with truth and justice? Shines like the sun in all of its brilliance. The King of glory. The King above all kings. This is amazing grace. This is a failing love.

That you would take my place. That you would bear my cross. You would lay down your life. That I would be set free. Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me. You are here with us this morning. We are thankful for those of you who are joining us online. Just a couple of announcements before we close. We'll be here Wednesday night. We are going through the Book of James. That is at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday night. Also, as we mentioned earlier, Debbie is about to get some knee surgery. One of the things you may not know is that Debbie she successfully serves in helping us keep everything clean and straightened up, and she does a wonderful job, and we are so thankful for her. But she is also going to be recovering from knee surgery for a whole bunch of weeks, so we would like maybe to get some volunteers, if you're willing, to come in and help once a week kind of straighten things up. You can talk to me or talk to Rachel, and we can kind of coordinate those weeks and those times. But I told her the other day,

I said, "Well, it's going to take like eight of us to fill in for what you have done by yourself." And so we are so thankful for her, but we are going to need some help while she is recovering. Also, we're getting ready to do some work downstairs. We haven't used a couple of our rooms for a while, and so we are working on getting that done. Our big room several years ago, we had a little bit of a basement flood, and it had some problems with the flooring. And so we have some volunteers to help with some of the repairs, and we are getting ready to pull out and replace that flooring. So if you would like to help with some of those things, whether that is sort of physical help, we're going to need a group of people to come help pull stuff off the floor, or if you would like to sort of donate to the materials for that project, you are welcome to do that as well.

A couple ways to do that is if you give online, there is a little checkbox for basement project that's just been added, or if you want to write a check for that, you can put that memo in the memo line so that we can use that. So our goal is to get that back functional, because we have a couple things we would like to do with that space and use that space for the encouragement of the church. And so if you want more details, I can fill you in on that a little bit later. So I'm going to go ahead and have a word of prayer. I'm going to read a verse, and then we will sing the doxology. Father in heaven, we thank you for your church and your people. We thank you for the joy that you bring us through gathering together. And I just thank you for all of your good gifts. Be with us as we leave this place. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

From the book of Jude, starting in verse 24. "Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time, and now and forever." We're going to sing the doxology and be dismissed. Praise God, from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him, above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen. Amen. Amen.