From His Heart

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Today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, you'll learn the importance of putting your faith stake in the ground for good.

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Now, here's the question for you and me. Have you, have I fully decided to follow Jesus?

Can we sing that song? "I've decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back."

I don't care what happens; I'm not turning back to my old way of life. There is treasure, there is blessing, there is hope that you always dream of.

Love can heal every scar.

Speaker 1

Who do you serve in this life? Have you fully decided to follow Jesus? If you really want to be strong and courageous for the Lord, it starts by following him 100%.

This is from His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve. Thank you for joining us today as Pastor Jeff shares three insights from Joshua Chapter 24 to help us live a courageous life fully devoted to God, regardless of the circumstances. And that means any circumstances.

Today's message, "A Stake in the Ground," is the second in the new series "Strong and Courageous" from Pastor Jeff. If you miss any, you can go to fromhisheart.org and click the Listen link.

Now, though, open your Bible to the Book of Joshua, chapter 24, as Pastor Jeff Shreve begins the lesson entitled "A."

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Stake in the Ground in Joshua, chapter 23 and Joshua, chapter 24. Joshua is 110 years old and he knows that he is going the way of all the earth. He's getting ready to die. And he has his last farewell speech to the children of Israel. In that speech, 23, and then again in 24, he tells the children of Israel what's really important. You know, you listen up, because the old saint of God, the man who has been leading Israel, the book of Joshua covers about 25 years, and he's been the leader of Israel, this soldier who was turned into the leader to follow Moses and lead the people into the promised land.

Now what does he have to say to us? And what he issued to the children of Israel was a challenge. And it's a very strong challenge. And it's a very famous challenge because what he said in Joshua 24, verse 15, people have been using that for years and years and years. You see it on plaques, you see it in homes. The words of Joshua in chapter 24, he recounts all the great things that God had done for his people. Then he says in verse 14, "Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the river," that's the river Euphrates, "and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve. Whether the gods which your fathers served when they were beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

Now here's the question for you and me. Have you? Have I fully decided to follow Jesus? Can we sing that song? "I've decided to follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back." I don't care what happens. I'm not turning back to my old way of life.

Three insights from Joshua 24 that I want us to look at today. Insight number one: you must make a choice concerning Jesus if you're going to follow Jesus fully. And that's the main thing that Jesus said when he conducted his public earthly ministry in the New Testament. In the Gospels, he would tell people, "Follow me, follow me." And so the people that responded to him followed him. Those that didn't, obviously they didn't follow. But you must make a choice concerning Jesus. That's what he says in verse 15. "Choose for yourselves today whom you will serve."

Now the people have gathered at Shechem. Shechem is an important place in the Old Testament times and it's between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim. And God did a lot of great things there at Shechem. Abraham had built an altar at Shechem. So he's got all the people there at Shechem. They have conquered the land, so to speak, but there's still some mop-up duty. But the Lord has delivered them, starting with the battle of Jericho and all those other battles. And over a 25-year period, they conquered the promised land. And Joshua is getting ready to die and he's telling them, "You need to make a choice. You need to choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve."

I remember being a kid growing up in California watching TV and they would have public service announcements on the TV very often from Smokey the Bear. Remember Smokey the Bear? And he would talk about what you do when you're camping and how you put out fires. And then came the slogan that has been for decades with the forestry department: "Only you can prevent forest fires." I think we have the Smokey the Bear. Only you can prevent forest fires. I remember as a little kid seeing that come on the television. That's a lot of pressure. I didn't know it was all on me, you know. But the thrust is that everybody has to take responsibility. That's a good slogan. That's why they haven't changed it since it came out in the 40s.

Only you can choose for you whether you're going to follow Jesus or not follow Jesus, whether you're going to serve the Lord or not serve the Lord. Nobody else can choose for you. The only person who can choose for you is you. "Choose for yourselves this day," he told the people. Listen, God has no grandchildren. He has no grandchildren. He only has children. What does that mean? That means just because your mom and your dad are Christians, that you're not somehow grandfathered in.

We read in the book of First Samuel about the priest Eli. He was there presiding over the tent of meeting in Shiloh, and he had two sons, Hopney and Phinehas. And the Bible says of those two sons, they were worthless fellows. They did not know the Lord. They're the sons of Eli, Eli's the priest, and they're acting as priests, but they were worthless and they didn't know the Lord. Just because Eli was a believer didn't make them believers. Just because your mom and dad are believers doesn't make you a believer. Just because your granddad was a pastor somewhere doesn't mean a hill of beans difference really for you because you have to choose for yourself.

I told you once before about a membership class that I was a part of when I was at Champion Forest, and it came toward the end and people were getting ready to make decisions about joining the church. I remember talking to this guy, Jeff. He was there with his wife and his son. I was asking him about his relationship with Jesus and he said, "Well, my brother's a priest." I said, "Huh? What does that mean?" "Well, you know, I mean, that's got to be worth something there, you know, I got a brother in the ministry." I said, "Well, great for your brother. He's not joining the church. What about you?" "Well, you know, my parents are good Christians." Wonderful.

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What about you?

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And I didn't really put him on the spot because he was there with his wife and his son. I just said to him, I said, can we get together for lunch to talk a little more about this? I'd like to get to know you better. He was very happy. He said, yeah, let's do it. We went to lunch, and I explained the gospel to him, and he prayed to receive Christ. See, he didn't understand what it was all about. He thought you were okay if you had some relatives or friends in the church. Somehow, that was going to kind of throw shade on you. It doesn't.

John 1:10 says that he was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him. He came to his own, and those who were his own did not receive him. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood. That means it's not in the bloodline. Just because mom and dad are Christians, that doesn't mean anything for you. Who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh. That means you can't grit your teeth and just say, I'm going to become a Christian if it's the last thing I do. Nor of the will of man, but of God. So it's not by blood, it's not by generation, it's not through the will of the flesh. It's not by determination, it's not by the will of man, not by nomination. It's for those who personally receive Christ, who say to Joshua's challenge, hey, I will choose with you, Joshua, to serve the Lord. I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back. No turning back.

Second insight: you must make a clean break with your old way of life if you're going to follow the Lord and serve the Lord and do what the scripture says here. Fear him and serve him in sincerity and truth, and put away the gods which you're following, whether they are beyond the river or in Egypt, and serve the Lord. If you're going to do that, you have to make a break with your old way of life. In the gospel accounts, we read about Matthew Levi, the tax collector, coming to Jesus. The Scripture says in Luke chapter five, after that, he went out and noticed a tax collector named Levi sitting in the tax booth. He said to him, follow me. He left everything behind, got up, and began to follow him. Now that is a great picture of what happens to you and me. If we're going to say, I'm giving my life to Jesus, everything is going to change.

2nd Corinthians 5:17 states, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things passed away; behold, new things have come. We need to make a break with our old way of life as we come to Jesus. Now, repentance is turning from your old way of life and giving your heart and life to Jesus. When you turn from your old way of life, you don't keep holding on to it. Joshua told the people, fear the Lord. Verse 14: serve him in truth and sincerity, and put away the gods which your father served beyond the river and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. Beyond the river, he's talking about the river Euphrates. When the word of the Lord came to Abraham, he lived in Ur of the Chaldeans, which was beyond the river.

What God did with Abraham was significant. He wasn't Abraham then; he was just Abram. He worshiped the moon god. He was a pagan to the core. The Lord called him, and he left the false gods beyond the river, and God took him to the promised land. Abraham built an altar there at Shechem, where Joshua is with the people. Abraham is the father of all those who believe; he's the father of the Jews. From Abraham, you have Isaac, and from Isaac, Jacob. Jacob had his name changed to Israel, and Jacob had 12 sons. The 12 tribes are the 12 sons of Israel, and that's where we get the Jewish race.

So the Lord is saying through Joshua, hey, you got to put away the foreign gods and choose for yourselves whom you will serve. If you don't want to serve the Lord, verse 15, then you don't have to. God's not making you serve him; he's inviting you to serve him. If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, okay, well, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve. Whether the gods which your father served, which were beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

The people, verse 16, answered and said, far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods. For the Lord our God is he who brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and who did these great signs in our sight and preserved us through all the way in which we went, and among all the peoples through whose midst we passed. The Lord drove out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites who lived in the land. We also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.

Then Joshua said to the people, this is surprising. You will not be able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your transgression or your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm and consume you after he has done good to you. The people said to Joshua, now, no, but we will serve the Lord. Joshua's not telling them God is not a God who forgives sin; he's dealing with the superficial jump-on-the-bandwagon, yeah, I'm gonna decide to follow Jesus kind of emotionalism. He's saying, hey, you be careful with what you're saying here because God is a holy God. He's a jealous God—not jealous of you, but jealous for you.

Verse 21, the people said to Joshua, no, but we will serve the Lord. Joshua said to the people, verse 22, you are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen for yourselves the Lord to serve him. They said, we are witnesses. Now, therefore, put away the foreign gods which are in your midst and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel. He tells them twice, put away your foreign gods. Maybe that's why he wasn't so easily convinced that they were going to follow the Lord because they had foreign gods.

You remember when they went into the land of promise, the land of Canaan? The Canaanites were pagan to the core. That's why God dispossessed them from the land; that's why he threw them out, because they were participating in child sacrifice. They were very sensual in their worship. The Lord told his people, hey, you don't mingle with those people because that's too much temptation. You can't intermarry with those people; you can't have anything to do with those people. You need to drive them out. I will give you the land; you drive them out, but you have to fight them. They're not just going to go willingly. You're going to have to defeat them, and I'll give you the strength to defeat them.

But there's a problem with those people, and the problem is their sexualized, idolatrous worship that had such a pull on Israel, and that's why they couldn't be around it. So Joshua is saying, hey, if you're going to choose for yourselves the Lord to serve him and follow him and love him and revere him, then you got to make a break with the past. You can't follow Jesus and compromise with sin. That's what he's saying. And that's the big problem that Israel had. It's a big problem that you have, that I have, that we have. Living the Christian life is the issue of compromise.

You know, we think that, you know, I want to be all in for Jesus, but, man, I kind of like this over here, too. The prophet Elijah in First Kings 18, years and years down the road from where we are in Joshua 24, said to the people, how long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, if Yahweh is God, then follow him. But if Baal is God, then follow him. The people didn't answer him a word, as it says in First Kings 18. See, the people like to ride the fence. They wanted to have one foot in Yahweh's camp and one foot in Baal's camp. They wanted to hedge their bets. They wanted to say, well, you know, I want the best of both worlds.

Well, that's not offered as an option with the Lord because he says you have to be all in for me. The very first commandment states, I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me, no other gods alongside of me, no other gods that are rivaling me. The people always wanted to have these other gods, and so they would have these little household idols that they carried with them because they said, you know, we'll pray to Yahweh, but if he doesn't come through, maybe these household idols will come through.

Joshua said, you get rid of those. He tells them twice, you have to get rid of those gods because you can't follow Jesus and compromise with sin. If you try and do that, you will find out the reality of Galatians 6: do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. We have a guy in the book of Genesis who thought he could do that. His name was Lot. He was the nephew of Abraham, and he went with Abraham when God called Abraham, Abram, from Ur of the Chaldees. He brought Lot with him. Lot was also a believer in the Lord. Abraham believed in the Lord, and so did Lot.

In Genesis chapter 12, there's a famine in the Promised Land. Abraham has been traveling with his wife and with his nephew, and all of a sudden, they're in the Promised Land. This is the place; there's a land flowing with milk and honey. This is supposed to be the place, but there's a famine in the land. Abraham thinks, well, what am I gonna do? There's a famine here. I guess I'll go down to Egypt. He takes matters into his own hands. Instead of trusting God, he goes down to Egypt and gets himself in all kinds of trouble.

Now, Egypt in the Bible is a picture of sin. God's people were enslaved in Egypt. How did they get out of Egypt? Through the blood of the lamb, the Passover lamb. That's a picture of salvation. Egypt is a picture of sin; Pharaoh is a picture of the devil. Abraham goes down into Egypt and takes his nephew Lot with him. Then in Egypt, Abraham gets right with God. He comes out of Egypt, and he comes out of Egypt a very wealthy man. He's got flocks and herds, and Lot has flocks and herds.

In Genesis 13, we have a problem because the herdsmen of Abraham and the herdsmen of Lot are not getting along very well. They're fighting over land, fighting over grass, and fighting over territory. Abraham says to Lot, hey, nephew, this is no good. We're living among the pagans, and we're fighting amongst ourselves. We can't be the witnesses God wants us to be, so we need to separate. You go left, I'll go right. You go north, I'll go south. You just choose.

The Bible says this about Lot: Lot lifted up his eyes, Genesis 13:10, and saw all the Valley of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere. This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go to Zoar. Lot looked to the east and saw this well-watered, lush grass as he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah before it was destroyed. Lot said, that looks like Eden, the garden of the Lord, and Egypt. Man, I like Egypt. It's the best of both worlds. It's a little bit of heaven and a little bit of sin, and I can just mix those together and pitch my tent towards Sodom. Everything will be great, and I'll make all this money because I'll have the fattest flocks and herds, and we'll just get filthy rich there.

And we would never live in Sodom because Sodom is a city of sin. We'll just live on the outskirts of Sodom, in the suburbs of the City of Sin, because he thought he could compromise. He thought he could straddle the fence. He thought he could have one foot in the world and one foot in the church. You cannot do that. If you're going to follow the Lord, you have to follow fully.

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Following fully means to act completely and wholeheartedly, committing to God's will. It means giving up everything—sin, fear, and attachment to worldly things—to follow God's will for your life. Does that describe you?

You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve today and the lesson called A Stake in the Ground. It's from his new six-lesson series, Strong and Courageous. We want to thank you for helping us share these kinds of messages around the world on From His Heart.

From His Heart is expanding each week with new outlets and literally countless new listeners and viewers around the world. Why do we seek to grow? Because Christians today are under increasing pressure to stop standing for truth. As we've seen, the world wants to force us, even violently, to keep quiet, fall in line, and blend into the crowd—their crowd. But friend, we all know now is not the time to shrink back. This is the time to rise up with bold faith, to stand strong in God's truth, and to courageously live it out, no matter the cost.

You can help us spread that word each day on From His Heart when you give to support this ministry. When you make a gift of any amount, today we'd like to say thank you by sending you Pastor Jeff's new series, Strong and Courageous: Six Lessons on a USB Flash Drive, CDs, DVDs, or an immediate MP3 download. To get your copy, call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-BIBLE) or go online to fromhisheart.org to make that gift and receive it with our deepest thanks.

Your prayers are vital, so thank you for taking the time to pray for From His Heart and for Pastor Jeff as we come to your mind and heart. God bless you.

Thank you also for joining us today on From His Heart. I'm Larry Nobles, with a symbolic engraved invitation to you to be with us tomorrow for part two of this timely lesson from Pastor Jeff called A Stake in the Ground. It's from the six-message series Strong and Courageous. Join us on Thursday when Pastor Jeff will open up God's Word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from God's heart, here on From His Heart.

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There is bless There is hope that you always dream love he can hear every scar from his heart.

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From His Heart is the listener-supported broadcast ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve, speaking the truth in love to a lost and hurting world.

Remember, no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

Find out more about that when you go to fromisheart.org.