Title: Joshua 24
By: Todd Bevins
Intro
I want to talk to you this morning about—I have been listening to some of Swindoll’s messages about the Will of God. It is a tremendous job about what he does with that and the things he talks about there in knowing the Will of God. In talking about our lives and so forth. Some will say they really want to know the will of God and some do. However, they don’t really want to do the will of God.
It is not that my mind is really going in that direction but I got to thinking about what do I really want. I have felt this for quite some time as I got older and the longer, I walk with the Lord. I would have to say one of the major things I want out of life is that I want my life to impact somebody else’s for the good. I really want that. I really desire that. When I am dead and gone, I want the life that I live to live on. I want it to live on through my children. I want it to live on through those around, and those who have known me. I want them to be able to take something from my life that will help them be able to enjoy life as much as I have or greater. The older I get and the conversation I had with an individual yesterday—I know they thought I was just plumb crazy—I said but I am just so in love with the Lord. I am just overwhelmed in His goodness and His greatness in my life. Do you know what that does? That helps me through all the things that I can’t understand or wrap my mind around. Likewise, the things that are so difficult in life. The sister said it earlier and others and I agree. I don’t know how anybody does it without walking in a close relationship with the Lord and loving the Lord and living for the Lord. I don’t know how they do it. I don’t really understand. However, I know this much. I want more than anything my life to impact the lives of others to the glory of God.
Three People
I want to talk about a few people before we go the verses and the first, we will be going to in a few moments will be Joshua 24:15. Before we go there, I want to read to you three different individuals. I took pieces from their obituaries—just a little bit—I did not want to ready the whole things. Just to give you an idea and try to help you see what I am thinking about this morning. Hopefully, it makes an impact in your life.
John MacArthur
First one I thought about or looked at is John MacArthur. He recently passed away. I want you to listen to a piece of what is said out of his obituary about him. His legacy as a pastor and teacher in faith will continue to inspire many generations to come. “He could get more out of the Bible verse than anyone I have ever known”, said Franklin Graham, and wrote on the social media. He called MacArthur one of America’s great Bible teachers. He was a lion of the pulpit said Reverend Mahler—if I said that right—a Southern Baptist leader of the Evangelistic World Magazine. He was a preacher. I like this. God used to make other preachers, better preachers. I would agree with that.
Frank Layden
You may know this individual, you may not—I didn’t—but Frank Layden was a former coach who led the Utah Jazz to the playoffs for the first time. He was known for his humor and sideline antics Layden coached the Jazz from 81 to 89. He had 277 wins which was the 3rd most in franchise history. He is the only coach in Jazz history to be named NBA Coach of the Year, earning the honor in 1984, when he also was honored as executive of the year.
Malcolm-Jamal Warner
Last one will be an actor. This one recently passed away. You may have known him as Theo on the Cosby Show. His energy stayed with Him, said Murray. You don’t have a bad memory when it comes to as much as we loved the character we also watched Malcom grow up in real life. He was a talented young man who matured into an outstanding adult.
You may wonder why in the world would you choose all three of them. All three of them are different. Now I am not going to speculate on their lives. I am not going to elaborate on any of that. I just want you to notice that something was said about all of them and all of them were different. I wrote down for myself that all of them were successful. All were well-known. All died. Everyone of them have left. There are the things I want to talk about this morning.
As I think about John MacArthur, as I read that—the others are inspiring and that’s great and wonderful things to say about them—I would have to say for me I kind of like John MacArthur the best. That sets it home with me.
Our Legacy
I want to be known as someone that when I leave this life; I want them to cherish some of the things that not only we have said but some of the things they have seen out of our life. They have seen what we have said be put into action. They realized that it worked for him so it will work for me. I want them to realize that what we say is true. What we say is real. What we say we have hinged our entire eternity upon it and we are sold out and convinced of the fact that what we do and how we live our lives is truth and based upon Jesus Christ. I want them to know that. I want them to know without any shadow of a doubt. I want no doubt in anyone’s mind whatsoever that when we leave here that they can see us again one day if they will live for Jesus Christ.
Choices
Here are the things I want to talk about and they are this. Things we know for sure. Here are the things that I thought about when I looked at these. We can choose; it is our choice. The first one will cover all four of them.
1. We can choose if we live for God or if we live for self.
2. We choose those who influence us.
3. Our lives can make a difference—make it count.
4. We will die.
That’s it!
Live for God, or Live for Self
You say, “Todd, what do you mean when you say I can choose? How does that work?” Well, Joshua said this to the nation of Israel when they stood in the balance here. They were about ready to face some difficult times. Joshua said this in 24:15. Here they had been waiting in the balance. They had been known for going to worship false gods, and coming back and worshiping false gods, then coming back to the true God. Joshua said this:
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD
He didn’t say—when he used the word Lord—He is the one and only specific. There is none other. It is not that we are going to pick this lord; no. He is saying we are going to serve the One and only true God. I make that choice. I make that decision.
Everyone of these individuals where they ended in eternity—we can speak well of John MacArthur. We know that. The others I am uncertain of. We don’t know that. I don’t know their lives. Here is what I do know. I know that it does not matter because they got to choose.
You and I get to choose who we are going to serve in this life. The thing of it is if our life is going to make an impact in the lives of others to the glory of God then I have to know who God is. I have to know Him personally. I have to have a relationship with Him. That relationship has to flourish. That relationship has to be cultivated. I have spoken to different ones here recently. I have been thinking about some different things and those who come, they hit, they miss, they are hot, they are cold, they are up, they are down. Listen. A successful walk with God takes time. It takes commitment. It takes someone who will examine the Word of God and fall completely in love with God.
I am not talking about going to heaven necessarily. I am not talking about just getting saved. I am talking about someone who really wants to know what it is like to live a joyful life here in a very unpleasant world, in a world full of sin and a world that is turned upside down to know what it is like to embrace the Love of God and say come what may, I am His. To do that one has to be faithful unto God. They have to be surrendered completely. It has to be a commitment from the heart that says I love Him when nobody else is around. When nobody is looking; I love the Lord. I love the Lord when everybody is around—I talk about Him when everybody is around. I talk about Him when it is just me and Him. I will praise Him no matter what, where I am at or what I am doing. He is God and He is everything to me.
This is what Joshua is saying. As for me and my house, this is our choice. We have already made our choice.
I am asking you this morning. Have you made your choice? Have you made your decision? I hope you have. I hope and pray that you have made the choice that you are going to let the Lord be Lord of your life. Let Him live and reign in your heart. Make Him cultivate a life that will bring glory unto Him. Accept the good with the bad and accept the bad with the good. Accept the times that are up and accept the times that are bad. Accept them all. You say, “What do you mean?” Do it through Jesus Christ and I promise you He will work it out for the good. He will do exactly what He said He would do.
Who influences us?
We can choose those who influence us. We can choose. Let me break it down like this. We can choose the people we hang around. We can choose the people that we call friends. We get to choose that. I have heard people say before: When I got saved, I lost all my friends. In reality they were not real friends anyway. They were acquaintances. They were people in our lives but they were not real friends. The bible says that a real friend sticketh closer than a brother. Praise God! We found that in the Family of God. Didn’t we? We found real friends that we not only look at as friends but as family. We thought about our sister and her post the other day about her great-grandchild. My heart breaks. As I was reading that my heart just melted where I was. I am not just telling you that to bring any attention to myself, but for the simple fact of how much that I love you and I know you love me. Why is that? Because there is something special about me? Well, no! Katie says there is but no, not really. The thing of the matter is this. It is the fact that you and I have something in common. We have the same Father, and that makes us family. Therefore, our friendship is a whole lot deeper than just an acquaintance. Praise God! We are family.
So, we get to choose that. How do you know that, Todd?
1 Corinthians 15:33 says:
Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.
Be careful for those who our sister talked about before she came to Christ. You heard me preach about not very long ago. I can’t stand negativity. Stay away from it. Don’t let people like that in your life. Get away from that. You have to set a goal for yourself and one of those goals has to be that He has to be Lord of your life. The second thing that you want is to set for yourself is to make an impact to the glory of God from your life. You want Him to work in your life. It is going to be hard to do that if you are around people you don’t need to be around. They are going to influence you in ways that you don’t even realize it. It wasn’t very long ago that we had a conversation with Grant. We were talking about something. He brought up a situation and said; “Do you know what really bothers me about this?” He said, I hate it when he acts like so and so. When he talks or behaves like this or does that. I said I understand. However, can I tell you something? You have done the same thing. When you hang around certain people you start acting like them. Guess what? I have done the same thing. We find ourselves guilty of that. Therefore, it is important who we allow into our space. Before we know it—we hope to make an impact on them—but if we are not careful, we start talking like they talk. We start acting like they act. We behave like they behave. We don’t even realize that we are doing it. So be careful.
Proverbs 16:28
A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends.
Be careful!
What is the next on your list Todd. It is this.
Our lives can make a difference, so make it count. It can make a difference.
First of all, for it to make a difference we have to choose the right direction and the Lord is the right direction. The second thing we have to do is choose who we hang around. We need to make that they are within the realm of our family, not necessarily our last name family. I am talking about hanging around good Christian people. As much as you can, as much as possible. I know we are in the world, but we are not of the world. Let your life be influenced by good Godly people. Here is the next one.
Make a Difference
Make your life count. How do I do that? Here is how I am going to work on it.
Matthew 5:13-16
13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
So in the words of Chuck Swindoll, How do we let our lives make a difference and how do we make it count?
Know Christ
Choose your friends wisely
Let your light shine and shake the salt
How do I do that? By the way you live your life for God. Make it count. Fall in love with Him. How do I do that? Think about what He has done for you already. Think about how He blessed your life already. Think about the things that you did not know how it was going to turn out—and I could name a few of those just in our lives. We had no idea on how they were going to work out. They just did! Do you know who I give credit to? God Almighty! During that time, He cradled me. During that time, He helped me. During that time, He reassured me that all would be okay. Whether I went on or whether He dealt with it here or whatever; it was going to be okay. We get there and we do that. That is how you and I when we live out our lives and when others know that we are going through difficult times when things are great and they know when they are bad. They can see it on our faces. I am the world’s worst when I am upset to try to hide it on my face. You are going to see regardless. I try to hide it, but I am not very good at it.
However, you and I go through time that are difficult. We go through times that are great. Sometimes it is not so great. People around us every day. How do we shine the light and shake the salt? Live for God when things are and when they are bad. Praise Him when they are good. Praise Him when they are bad. Let them know that He is still God on the mountain the same as He is in the valley. He is still God.
Matthew 7:12
Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.
Be good to those around you. If they are not good to you then get away from them. Get as far away from them as you can. You say, well I am married to it. Well, you are stuck. I can’t help you there. What I can tell you is this. Get away from those who don’t want to be good to you. You do what you need to do around them as far as your job is concerned or whatever else. You do what is necessary then move on. Live for God while you are around them. Treat them with a godly kindness. Treat them with Christian love.
The last thing is this. We are all going to die. How do you know that, Todd? Because it is appointed unto man once to die in Hebrews 9:27. After this, the judgment. We are going to die. We are going to leave here. Count on it. You may not know your hours of work next week. You may not know how long you are going to work where you are at or where you are going to retire. You may not know where you are going to live. However, I can tell you this much. Go ahead and write it down. You are going to die. I don’t say that to sadden anyone. I don’t say that to dishearten anyone. I say that because the reality of the fact is this. I told my boys when they were little. You have one shot at this life. You have one shot in this world because when you leave here, that is it. Make it count. Make you life count for the glory of God. I am not downgrading jobs, schools, education, or anything. All of that is important. Whatever, you do—do it all to the glory of God.
Closing
I want to leave with this last thing.
How will you be remembered? I want you to think about this determines on how you answer and how you respond to the questions/the things I have asked you this morning.
Whether you choose to let God be Lord of your life. You choose those who you are around. Whether you allow the Lord to work in your heart and life so that you might make a difference to His glory. That is going to determine how people are going to remember you when they are putting dirt on your face. When you are in the ground and you are long gone, that will determine how you are remembered. I want to be remembered in a way that will bring glory to God that will impact the lives of others. I know you do too.
Come and be saved.