Choose today who you will serve
A sermon for August 27, 2006
Joshua 24:1-2, 14-18; Ephesians
6:10-20; John 6:56-69
You know, life is all about making choices and our lessons really seem to point to that quite clearly today. You probably make hundred’s of decisions everyday without really thinking about it. To give you a few examples: one of the choices you probably made was what to wear to church today. Another might have been whether or not to eat breakfast and what to eat. You might have to decide where to go to eat after the service.
We make decisions every time we get
in a car to drive anywhere. They are
working on
Some decisions are tougher. For younger kids they might include whether to do your homework or watch TV or go play ball for an hour before dinner. Older kids might have to decide whether to go to school or to skip for the day. There are all kinds of choices out there. There is alcohol, there are drugs, some people may be lured to promiscuity, or shoplifting. There are all kinds of pitfalls waiting for us out there.
Some of those choices should be
governed by how we’ve decided to live our lives – if we’ve actually made that
decision yet. This is exactly what
Joshua is talking about in our first lesson.
The conquest of
They had a choice – they could
worship and serve the gods their ancestors had in
The covenant they are making with God is very similar to the ones between a victorious king and the conquered people. Those treaties read something like, “I will be your king and you will do this, and that, and such and such... “ And so they make a treaty – a covenant – with God – Yahweh. That is their decision. They will worship God and try to live their lives in a way that is pleasing to God.
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We see a similar kind of dynamic working in the Gospel lesson. We’re picking up the end of last week’s lesson. Jesus is telling the people that he is the bread of life, and he came down from heaven, and the people are looking at him like he just landed from Jupiter. “What are you talking about!”
My first year in
Some of the disciples were feeling the same way about Jesus himself. They’re probably not much different from you and me. Most of us come to the church searching for deeper meaning in life; something beyond our humdrum existence and our petty problems. We’re looking for something bigger than we are. We want a God that can rescue us when we’re in trouble; a God that can take care of the problems that we can’t solve. We want a God who does not abandon us when the going gets tough; one who understands us; our emotions, our inadequacies, our sins and who can love us and forgive us anyway. And here is this man talking about eating his body and drinking his blood, so they made the decision not to follow him anymore.
Now Jesus is sitting there with the original twelve and he asks them, “Do you want to leave also?” Peter speaks for the twelve. He replies, “Lord, where would we go?” -- You see, they've left their homes and families, their jobs and careers. “You alone have the words of eternal life.” No one else inspired them like Jesus did. No one else made their hearts burn within them. No one else spoke of heaven and the life to come with that kind of authority. No one else cared about what happened to them. Why should they turn anywhere else.
“You are the Holy One of God.” Jesus had given them the faith they thought no longer existed. He had renewed their hope for the future. They understood that this man was different - there was a completeness they felt in his presence that they had never felt before. You see, God draws us to Himself with longings that we can neither understand nor describe. It is that spirit that the twelve are hanging on to.
Words alone are never sufficient to describe our encounter with the divine. They can never catch the essence or the emotional impact that God has on us. That’s what the twelve were experiencing - an encounter with the Holy One of God. And they trusted, that even though they could not fathom what Jesus was talking about, that God was going to work and to move and that one day, some way, they would understand.
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The problem is that when you make that decision to follow Jesus, to walk in the ways of Yahweh, you might think that everything is going to be just fine and you’ll never have any problems again. Actually, there are preachers who make a lot of money by preaching exactly that. The truth is you’re still going to have problems and troubles.
Remember that choice you have to make? Not everyone chooses for God, and when you do, it’s not always easy. In our lesson from Paul, he talks about standing against the wiles of the devil, and the powers and principalities that come against us. And he tells us how we can stand against all the assaults of this world.
There are times and places that we actually feel like we are under assault. Last weekend was one of those times for me. First I pulled half a fingernail off, then I fell and later my back went out on me. So I got friends praying for me.
Even more to the point, when I used to teach 8th grade math at a junior high school in Alvin, at one time it got the point that every time I walked into the building I would begin to feel oppressed. I wasn’t the only teacher to feel that way. Seemed like the other Christian teachers began to feel that way also. We formed a group and met at the school early on a regular basis and prayed for the school, and gee, the oppression went away. Wonder of wonders!
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Back to Paul - he tells us to be strong in the Lord and to pray at all times. He tells us to be aware that things are going to happen to us that are going to try to draw us away from the Lord.
He says to put on the whole armor of God.
Paul had been in prison when he wrote this and he had watched the soldiers put on their armor day after day and he thought of a way to use that to teach others how to do battle with these powers that seem to try to drag us down, and to be able to keep the faith. He says, “dress yourself as a soldier dresses for battle. Put on the belt of truth.” You’ve heard the saying, ‘the truth shall set you free’ – if you keep the truth before you, then you won’t be distracted by lies and distortions others tell you.
Next, you put on the breastplate of righteousness – the knowledge that you are of God, made in his image and you have chosen – made the decision to follow Jesus. And that doesn’t change regardless of anything you do or that happens to you.
Third, you put on the shoes of peace, that wherever you walk you strive to bring peace, not strife. It’s not just proclaiming the gospel of peace, but it’s conducting your life in such a way that you demonstrate peaceful ways of co-existing with those around you.
Fourth, you must take of the shield of faith, that piece of armor that catches the darts and arrows that the enemy (those around you) try to throw (shoot) at you to distract you from the task at hand or to throw you off the course you have set for yourself.
Next you take up the helmet of salvation. Jesus Christ loved you so much that he gave his life for you – regardless of who you are or what you have done. God loved you so much that he gave his only begotten son, so that everyone who believes in him might have everlasting life.
And the last thing you do is take up the sword of the Spirit – which is the word of God – give to us and our only offensive weapon. When you are not sure of what to say, fall back on the word of God – scripture is a great defense. But remember that you are not to beat people up with it – or drive off those who need desperately to hear what God has to say to them.
We are all sinners – every one of us – and we all need to hear the word of God. There are some people here who want to run off those they feel are unworthy. When we do that we may very well be cutting off their path to salvation – and we don’t have the right to deny anyone access to God’s saving grace. We don’t come to church as full-blown Christians – we come to church as seekers, seeking where God’s grace can touch our lives and bring us into communion.
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Joshua says, “Choose today who you will serve.” Not who you will “worship.” Sitting in the pews to worship is for beginners. Remember last week when I said you only get out of worship what you put into it? That’s very true – not just with God, but with all your relationships. You might say that you love someone, but if you never do anything that demonstrates that love, how long do you think they’re going to believe it?
This seems like a good time to point out that there are a lot of things that need to be done here. A lot of people have volunteered to do things. The problem here seems to be follow-through. If you are signed up to do something, and if you can’t make it for whatever reason, then you need to get a replacement or let someone know.
When we make a commitment to God, we need remember that that includes service. We need to see that we follow through on what we promise to do. There are a lot of ministries here and we are going to revamp and begin to get some training and we need people to take responsibility for their commitments seriously.
By September 10, there will be an opportunity to sign up for special jobs and ministries, especially in worship and prayer and education, as well as stuff behind the scenes. And there will be training for these jobs and the opportunity to get together with others who are interested in the same things and learn more about them.
Choose today how you are going to serve the Lord – and let us know by signing up on September 10th. Amen.
Please feel free to
email me with any comments or questions at nan@doerrworks.com