1 LOVE THE LORD! JOSHUA 23:2-13 SERMON OUTLINE Joshua makes it clear in this text that God has fought for the Jews and won their battles for them. Further, the Lord has provided the land as inheritance for them. The Lord will continue to push their enemies back and they will possess the land. Clearly, God has empowered the Israelites to conquer the land! Here s what He requires in return: vs.11 Be very careful therefore, to love the Lord your God. In response to all the blessings the Jews had received God seeks their love. In response to all the blessings we have received from God, God wants your love! Just as the Israelites had received great blessings from God, so have we! Let s do an assignment for a moment. Take out a pen/pencil and write down three great blessings you have received from O. It could be a great wife/husband, great health, solid, godly parents, it could be a wonderful sister who raised you; or your children, or some great friends you ve had, or your kids, etc. My 3 greatest blessings are: coming to faith in Christ as a young teenager, godly parents who raised me and the gift of a wonderful Christian wife and three great kids. You might be struggling today w/a huge problem that has left you feeling unhappy, bitter, marital problems, etc. Ask God to help you as you remember the blessings you ve been given. Loving the Lord involves: 1.Obeying the Lord! (vs.6-7) Joshua commands his people to keep and do everything written in the Law of Moses so that they will not succumb to the worship of idols and false gods. See Exodus 20:1-3, Deut 5:7-9. (stories of Jason Brown and Sexual atheism) 2.Remaining close to the Lord. (vs.8-9) Word study on cleave or cling. Dabaq in original. to keep close, to cleave in loyalty and affection. Same exact word that appears in Gen 2:24 in which the ESV has translated it hold fast in referring to a man leaving his father and mother and cleaving to his wife. Men, to have a healthy marriage we must cleave to our wives we must strive to cleave, to hold fast to our wives! In the same way, to remain close to the Lord we must also cleave, or hold fast to Him! So, how are you doing today? Are you close to the Lord? (story of Greyfriars Bobby) 3.Refusing to return to the worship of false gods. (vs.12-13) In vs.12 we see the use of the word, cling once again. Same word as vs.8 but this one is a warning not to cling to the nations still remaining among them. Joshua issued a stern warning. Note how the mood changes dramatically in vs.13 If the Jews return to the worship of idols and intermarry with the pagan tribes they will be a snare and trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes. Doesn t sound very good does it? Pretty painful!! Further, they will perish from off the good ground the Lord has given them. Perhaps you need to refuse to return to a false god which has captured your heart/devotion: an addiction, a selfish dream, an ungodly relationship, a bitter attitude, etc. If you cling to a false god of some kind, you cannot truly love the Lord your O for you have a divided heart.
2 LOVE THE LORD! JOSHUA 23:2-13 SERMON Many of you know that my son, Matthew recently retired from the Army. Some years ago he was stationed at Fort Hood, Texas where he served as a company commander. One year Sally and I visited Matthew and his family and he told me he wanted to do something special for my birthday. He knew that I had never been to a professional football game so he bought tickets for the two of us to see the Houston Texans play the Indianapolis Colts. Peyton Manning was playing quarterback for the Colts at that time. On the appointed day, Matt drove us to the game. During the drive south from Fort Hood to Houston I offered to help pay for gas. Matt responded, No, dad, this is my gift. I responded, well, let me pay for the parking Nope, I ve got it! Matt, let me pay for lunch Again, he refused and insisted that he wanted to pay for everything and he did! The football game turned out to be a GREAT game; the Texans were winning until the fourth quarter when Peyton Manning directed one of his legendary comebacks and the Colts barely managed to win! Matt s gift to me that day was much more than a great football game; it was an unforgettable gift of love. The Lord wants us to love him with this same kind of thoughtful, deliberate, caring love! I want to speak about loving the Lord today. Joshua made it clear in the text that God had fought for the Jews and won their battles for them. The Lord provided the Promised Land for his people. The Lord will continue to push their enemies back and they will possess their land! Clearly, God had empowered the Jews to conquer the land! He had given them great and many blessings!! What does He want from them in return? Look at our main verse, in vs.11 Be very careful, therefore, to love the Lord your God. God wanted them to love Him!! God wants us, He wants you to love Him!! Look in the middle section of your bulletin and you will see the main point of the lesson today: Love the Lord your God! Joshua called his people to be very deliberate, careful and purposeful in loving God and expressing their love to God. Isn t it true that we often toss the word love around very casually? We say things to complete strangers like, hey, I love your outfit! or love your ride! or, I love that color on you! Most of us don t mean we really love the outfit or the car or the color, rather we like it. To really love someone or something should mean a lot to us and to them. When Joshua commanded the Jews to love God he didn t mean a casual, shallow love. Joshua had recalled the many blessings the Jews had received from God and on the basis of those blessings, the basis of God s multitude of blessings, He commanded the Jews to respond in love, to be very careful therefore to love the Lord your God! Love the Lord your God! Back to the story of my son taking me to the football game, Matt wanted to bless me as a result of his love for me and the blessings he had received growing up in a solid, Christian household in which he felt loved and accepted. The Israelites had been the recipients of great blessing from God: God had blessed them with land, victory, peace, and God wanted them to love him in response. Let s do a brief assignment. Take a pen or pencil out and on your sermon outline write three great blessings you have received from God. Your blessings could be a great wife or husband, good health, solid, godly parents, wonderful children, a meaningful job, the gift of faith that you ve received, etc. To give you some more ideas let me share with you the three greatest
3 blessings I ve already written on my page: first, coming to faith in Christ as a young teenager, second, godly parents who raised me and third, a wonderful Christian wife and three great kids. I realize you might be really struggling today with some big problems that make you feel unhappy or bitter or discouraged.but even in the midst of your pain and disappointment, ask God to help you remember blessings He has given you and write them! In our text, Joshua describes what loving the Lord involves. It involves: 1.Obeying the Lord. Love includes obedience! Look in the text in vs.6-7 in which Joshua said, Therefore, be very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right hand nor to the left, that you may not mix with these nations remaining among you or make mention of the names of their gods or swear by them or serve them or bow down to them. Joshua commanded the people to carefully obey all that the Law required. One of the key commands of the Law was not to worship other gods, the pagan gods of the Canaanites. The very first of the Ten Commandments prohibited the worship of false gods. This happens to be our theme verse for 2017. Amazing!! Look up to the front and say the verse with me: you shall have no other gods before me. Exodus 20:3 Jason Brown was the highest paid center in the NFL, playing for the St. Louis Rams. In late 2011 Jason had 2 children and a mansion with two fully stocked bars yet he and his wife were dying inside and were likely headed toward divorce. As a professed Christian, Jason had to admit that his relationship with Jesus was a ticket to forgiveness and little else-until he released his grip on money and football. Jason said that he started releasing his grip on his lavish lifestyle by pouring thousands of dollars of expensive liquor down the drain. After leaving the Rams and turning down three other teams, Jason and his wife put their home up for sale and bought a 100 year farm house with a dairy barn and 1,000 acres of uninterrupted land in North Carolina. Jason would become a farmer and give away what he grew. Jason learned farm basics from You Tube, which resulted in Fruits Farm, an organization which seeks, through community service to boost Bible literacy. 10,000 pounds of cucumbers and 100,000 pounds of sweet potatoes later, Jason said, I still know nothing about farming. But Jason can summarize his business plan and his life these days with one word, obedience. Jason had to come to terms with what or whom did he serve? Did he serve his own desires and needs; did he serve himself? Or, should he take his faith in Christ seriously and take steps towards obeying Christ and serving Him? What about you? Who or what do you serve? Many of you in this multi-purpose room have made decisions to believe in Christ. But does your belief mean that you also obey Him? I became a Christian as a young teenager in 1967. For the next twenty-five years, until 1992 I failed to obey our Lord s command to bring the full tithe to the Temple, as he tells us in the book of Malachi. I gave money, generously to the Lord s work, I pledged to the church but I didn t give the Lord what He required. I didn t obey His command. I regret my stubbornness, fear and pride all of which contributed to my failure to tithe. Where do you need to start obeying the Lord and really showing Him that you love him? You could be like I was by failing to bring the full tithe to the Temple, or you could be involved in an ungodly relationship or you could be worshipping another god like alcohol or opioids or pornography or fame or whatever! Listen: we show God that we love him through obeying Him. Change whatever you have to change to obey the Lord completely!! Be courageous, be brave and take action! Loving God also involves:
4 2. Remaining close to the Lord. Look in your Bible in vs.8-9 as Joshua continues, but you shall cling to the Lord your God just as you have done to this day. For the Lord has driven out before you great and strong nations. And as for you, no man has been able to stand before you to this day. Look again at the phrase in vs. 8, cling to the Lord your God. What does it mean to cling to the Lord your God? The word for cling in the original text is the word, dabak. It means to keep close, to cleave in loyalty and affection. The same exact word appears in Genesis 2:24 where we read about God s intention for the relationship between man and woman after He first created them. Genesis 2:24 states, Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh. The translators in the English Standard Version have chosen to translate the word dabak as hold fast in this passage rather than cling or cleave. However, other English translations use the word cleave. God wants husbands to cleave to their wives, to keep close to them in loyalty and affection. The same can be said for our relationship with God! God wants us to cling to Him, to keep close to Him, to cleave in loyalty and affection. How are you doing with this? Do you strive to keep close to God? We live in a time and culture that features many distractions for Christians. Our fast paced way of life leaves many of us breathless. We move from work, to transporting children or grandchildren to their recreational activities, to social commitments with our friends to getting a few hours of sleep, to getting up for work and then repeat and rinse! We keep up this torrid pace and pretty soon we pay a price for our relentless pace. The price we pay takes on many variations: sickness, marital problems, frustrations with our job, etc. When we refuse to set boundaries on our activities and our children s activities we suffer. We find that we don t have time for even the most basic and meaningful activities such as prayer, reading our Bible, having a devotional time with the Lord, attending worship, etc. So, are you so busy with your life that you don t have time for the Lord and working on staying close to the Lord? I ve told you the story before of a special dog by the name of Greyfriars Bobby. On 15 th February 1858 in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, a local man named John Gray died of tuberculosis. He was buried in old Greyfriars Churchyard. Bobby, a wee Skye Terrier, belonged to John who worked for the Edinburgh City Police as a night watchman and the two of them had been virtually inseparable for approximately two years. Bobby led his master s funeral procession to the grave at Greyfriars Cemetery and later when he tried to stay at his graveside, he was sent away by the caretaker. But the little dog returned and refused to leave, whatever the weather conditions. Although dogs were not allowed in the graveyard, the people rallied round and built a shelter for Bobby and there he stayed, guarding his master s grave. The news of Bobby s loyalty soon spread and people would travel from far and wide to see him. Bobby was well cared for by the people of Edinburgh but he still remained loyal to his master and he continued to stay faithfully guarding his master s grave for all those years until he died on January 14 th, 1872, aged 16 years. Bobby was also buried in Greyfriar s kirkyard, just 75 yards away from his master s grave. He has his very own red granite headstone which was unveiled in 1981. The inscription reads, Greyfriar s Bobby-died 14 th January 1872-aged 16 years. Let his loyalty and devotion be a lesson to us all. Amen! What a marvelous example of clinging!! Let us cling to our Master, our Lord like Greyfriar s Bobby did to his master!! Finally, loving the Lord involves:
5 3.Refusing to return to the worship of false gods. Look in Joshua 23:12-13 where Joshua issues a stern warning to the Jews. For if you turn back and cling to the remnant of these nations remaining among you and make marriages with them so that you associate with them and they with you, know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes until you perish from off this good ground that the Lord your God has given you. Do you hear how the mood changes substantially from earlier in the text! Joshua had been speaking in a very positive way but in vs.12 he warns his fellow Jews about returning to the worship of false gods. This worship of false gods manifests itself through intermarriage with the remaining pagan tribes. Note how the word cling appears again, but this time in a negative way. Joshua then warns them about associating with them, meaning associating with the pagan tribes through marriage and family relationships. That phrase associating with them means to go among them. God does not want His people mixing marriage and family relationships with the pagan, Canaanite tribes! If they do, He told them in vs.13 that He will not drive out the rest of the pagan tribes and they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes until you perish from off this good ground that the Lord your God has given you. Sounds pretty painful doesn t it? The Jews will pay a heavy price for their sin and disobedience! What false gods compete for your attention and devotion? A selfish dream? An addiction? An ungodly relationship? A bitter attitude? A greedy heart? If you cling to some false god you cannot truly love the Lord your God for you have a divided heart. God wants you and me to cling, to cleave to Him not to some false god!! We ve learned today that God want us, He wants you and me to love Him! Love the Lord your God! This love for God involves obedience, obeying the Lord, remaining close to the Lord, clinging to Him and refusing to return to the worship of false gods. Every one of these steps, obedience, clinging and refusing to return requires discipline, determination and effort. Discipleship is not easy. Jesus never said it would be! But when we truly love the Lord and express our love through obedience, loyalty and steadfastness we follow the Lord s will for our lives. Let us pray.