Joshua 24
You may have heard the phrase, “life is just a series of choices.” The choices we make shape our lives, who we become. This is way too complex to get into all the little nuances, but consider where you go to school, what career path you choose, who you marry, and most importantly who or what you choose to worship. As we enter a new year, 2026, we’ve probably all been considering different choices. What about my routine do I want to change? I choose to exercise more, to read my Bible more, to get outside more. Or, I choose to eat less junk food, watch less TV, or spend less time on my phone. All of those choices will shape who you are in 2026 and even into the years to come.
We reach the end of the book of Joshua this morning, and what a perfect ending to our time together. The ending sets the stage for the beginning of something new for the people of Israel. But, their future is dependent on the choice that they are faced with, the choice to worship God, or to put it bluntly, not to.
Go ahead and turn to Joshua 24. It’s a longer chapter, so we aren’t going to read it in its entirety, but I do want to begin by summarizing verses 1-13.
Summary of 24:1-13
Joshua has gathered all the nation together at Shechem. After a process of consecration, purifying themselves before the Lord, Joshua begins to recount a brief history of how the Lord has worked so far. These words are not Joshua’s, but the Lords, given to Joshua to communicate to the people. He begins with Abraham’s father, and how he worshiped false gods. Yet the Lord took Abraham and made a covenant with him. After the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt for a little over 400 years, He sent Moses and Aaron to help free them from captivity. Joshua recounts the story of the splitting of the Red Sea, of the wilderness wanderings, of the kings who opposed Israel, but the Lord continued to give them victory. He then speaks of their time so far in Canaan. How the leaders of Jericho, the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and the Jebusites opposed them, but the Lord gave them victory.
All along the way, the Lord says “I did this thing.” I destroyed them, I delivered you, I drove out…” and then verse 12, “And I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out before you, the 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.”
Look what the Lord is doing here through Joshua. “Look at everything I’ve done for you. I fought for you. I was faithful over and over again. Remember?! You saw it with your own eyes. You saw the armies approaching, and you saw me open the waters, giving you safe passage, and then you watched as the waters closed over the Egyptian army. You saw it! You experienced it!” I need everyone to just clear your minds and allow the reality of who God is to invade your minds. Remember the faithfulness of the Lord.
Now that their minds are set on the goodness of the Lord, Read 24:14-15.
Big Idea (Question): Who will you serve in 2026?
Joshua is presenting Israel with a choice. And it’s amazing when you think about it, because after everything that the Lord had done in their midst, after all of the miraculous and obvious ways that God showed up, there were still some who saw with their eyes but were not willing to commit their lives to the Lord.
Either you serve the Lord in sincerity and faithfulness, or you seek the gods of your forefathers beyond the Jordan River, or seek the gods of those whose land we now live in. You have a choice to make. Who will you serve? And then that famous verse that is plastered in homes all over the world, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” But I wonder how many actually mean it…
Before we talk about what it looks like to serve the Lord, let’s look at Israel’s response. Read vs. 16-18
“Yes Joshua, we agree! We have seen the Lord’s faithfulness. We will serve the Lord.” I mean it seems like the intention is there. They seem committed. But look at Joshua’s response. Read vs. 19-20.
Seems like Joshua is being a little harsh here. Let’s break it apart though. Joshua isn’t trying to discourage the people, but he’s trying to speak to the reality of their enthusiasm. He’s like, “Hey, take a step back for a moment and look at your track record. Even after the Lord saved you out from under the oppression of the Egyptians, you complained and turned your back on Him. Even after the Lord gave us victory over Jericho, we trusted in our own power and suffered a difficult defeat at Ai. So before we just jump all in and commit ourselves to the Lord, let’s be reminded that in our own humanity, in our sin, we cannot perfectly serve the Lord. He is holy, and we are not. If you commit to serving Him, you cannot forsake Him. If you commit your life to the Lord, then you cannot give your life to the worship of another. If you do, the consequence will be devastating.”
Vs. 21, “And the people said to Joshua, “NO, but we WILL serve the Lord.” Joshua, we are all in! We are committing our lives to the Lord. Him alone will we serve, Him alone will we worship!
Read. vs. 22-28
After this happens, Joshua dies at the age of 110. Israel continued to serve the Lord into the days after Joshua, until all the elders of Israel died as well.
If we flip just one page in our Bibles, to Judges 2:11, here’s what we read: “And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt.” Less than 20 years after the death of Joshua, Israel has turned their backs on the Lord. And it has devastating consequences.
New Testament Parallel
It’s easy for us to look at Israel and place judgment on them. What in the world guys?! Look what the Lord did, I mean you saw incredible miracles! How could you so quickly abandon the Lord? I think back on my own journey in the world of faith. I grew up in the church, and was privileged to experience a lot of different things. Every year in high school I would go to 2 camps with my Youth Group, one in the Summer, and one in the Winter. It was so easy to get to the end of those weeks and feel this emotional, spiritual brokenness that led to an enthusiasm to follow the Lord. On the final night of these weeks they’d ask for commitments to serve Jesus, and hands would fly up, and students would walk forward, and we would recommit our lives to the Lord. And then I would get home, and I would get back into my routine, and get back around my friends, and I would turn my back on the Lord. And then 6 months later I would have the same emotional experience, and I would recommit my life, and the cycle would continue.
It’s so easy for us to have a spiritual or emotional experience, and commit to following Jesus, commit to serving the Lord, but if we aren’t intentional with doing that, then we can so easily fall right back into our complacency, and even worse, we can be driven by our flesh and our desires for the things of the world, rather than the things of God.
I want us to turn over to the New Testament to dig a little deeper into this. Read Luke 14:28-30.
This is the danger of making an emotional decision to serve the Lord. Jesus says it right here. We must consider what it really means to follow Him. What are the implications on my life? What do I have to sacrifice? Am I willing to do that?! Is Jesus worth it?!
Listen to Matthew 16:24-26: “Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?”
We want to follow Jesus? Deny, take up, and follow.
Deny yourself. Say no to yourself. Say no to the things that draw you away from the Lord. Those things that we know we should not be doing. Those things that would be considered sinful. We cut those things out of our lives. We claw, and we fight, why? Because if we want to follow Jesus, we will do whatever it takes.
This includes taking up our cross. What does that mean? Well, what did the cross mean for Jesus? It means suffering. It meant being mocked and ridiculed. It meant death. And so we are willing to suffer. We are willing to be mocked and ridiculed for our faith. We, if called to do so, would be willing to die for our faith. And so we live every day, not concerned about what the world thinks about us, not concerned with appeasing culture, but instead we live to please the Lord.
And once we have denied ourselves, and we have picked up the gospel that offends, then we are ready to truly follow Jesus.
Guys, following Jesus is not easy. It is not meant to be. It’s hard. It’s a daily battle. And so we look at this new year in front of us, and we consider all the things that we want to improve upon in our lives. This is where we should start. And it begins with the question, who will you serve? I join with Joshua in proclaiming that me and my house, we are going to serve the Lord. And I want to extrapolate into our church context this morning, and proclaim that Family Church will serve the Lord. Amen?
