Prioritize Your Choice

Joshua is challenging the Israelites to make a choice. After Moses died, Joshua took over as the leader of the Children of Israel. He had led them across the countryside of the Promised Land of Canaan defeating the Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, Hittites, Hivites, Jebusites, and Perizzites, (Joshua 24:11) or any other “-ites” I may have missed.

Now Joshua is much older and ready to retire. He gathers the people in the center of Canaan, at Shechem. Before he goes, he challenges the Israelites, “Now, fear the Lord and serve him wholeheartedly and faithfully. Remove the gods that your fathers served in the region across the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if you see no benefit in serving the Lord, then choose for yourselves today whomever you will serve—whether the gods that your fathers served beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living” (Joshua 24:14-15).

The gods they and their fathers served across the Jordan River and in Egypt were gods like Ra –the sun god of the Egyptians, Dagon – the fish god of the Philistines, Baal and Asherah – the fertility gods of the Canaanites, and Molech – the god of child sacrifice of the Ammonites.

Israel faces a choice. Which of god/God are they going to prioritize? Will they continue in their syncretism of mixing worship of fake gods with their worship of the one, true God? Will they keep waffling between having fun with the local false gods or give their undivided allegiance to the Lord of heaven and earth. It’s a choice between idols of wood, stone, and metal and the living, powerful, gracious Lord. It’s a choice between the gods who were powerless to help their worshipers keep their land and the Lord who had just given his people that land flowing with milk and honey.

The Israelites need to make a choice. You need to make a choice. Jesus teaches that we as Christians need to make a choice, “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24). God desires for you to choose to fear the Lord and serve him wholeheartedly and faithfully.

If your car starts once every three tries, is it consistent? If the postman skipped delivery every Monday and Thursday, is he trustworthy? If you don’t go to work once or twice a month, are you a reliable employee? If your water heater provides an icy cold shower every now and then, is it dependable?

If you worship only once or twice a month, are you considered a faithful Christian? If no one at work can tell you’re a Christian, are you a light for Christ in a dark workplace? If you only pray when you’re desperate, are you committed to your faith? If you take the Lord’s faithfulness for granted and give him only lips service in return, are you trustworthy? If you proudly confess your faith as a Christian here in church but then leave that faith at the door when you walk out, is that being a follower of Jesus? If you don’t have any Baals or Ashoreths or Buddahs in your home, yet you hang onto the gods of materialism and wealth, or you allow the whims and ways of the world guide your day-to-day decisions, do you have an undivided allegiance to the Lord?

We daily make choices with our sanctified faith. Each choice is a matter of prioritizing one item above another. Either choice can be a blessing from God. But how you prioritize those blessings is important. Do you make the worship of the Lord your priority or is watching your kids’ or grandkids’ sporting events on Sunday morning your priority? Do you prioritize hunting over being home with the family? Do you prioritize overtime over spending time in Bible study? Do you prioritize praying for your own needs over praying for the needs of your pastor, church family, and synod? Do you prioritize your home finances or the financial support of your church home?

How might you prioritize the Lord over the blessings from the Lord? You might find a sports league that doesn’t have Sunday tournaments. Or you might go to some games and then watch the worship service online with your whole family gathered in the living room where everyone is off their phones, singing the hymns, bowing their heads in prayer, and discussing the sermon after the online service is over. You might go hunting as a sport and to provide food for your family. As your children get older, you might take your kids hunting with you as family bonding time. You might inform your employer you’ll work extra hours on days when you won’t miss Sunday worship or Wednesday worship and Bible study. You might pray for Christ’s kingdom work first and then your own work later. You might create a budget where you give first to the support of God’s ministry at Lord of Lords and then use whatever is left over to support your family’s needs.

When you make these sanctified choices, it’s not an either or. It’s not even a both and. It’s choosing to prioritize God over God’s blessings. It’s more of a number 1 … and then everything else far below.

We don’t want to end up where the Old Testament Israelites ended up. While the choice should have been clear at Shechem, the author of Judges tells of Israel’s tragic choice not long in the future: “Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals” (Judges 2:11). 650 years after Joshua, the prophet Hosea writes, “They consult a wooden idol and are answered by a stick of wood” (Hosea 4:12). And “They offer human sacrifice and kiss the calf idols” (Hosea 13:2). Human nature, the pressures of society, and the great Deceiver are hard at work to blur the obvious choice.

Those things happen later. Immediately at Shechem, the Israelites made the right choice. On their own, they reviewed the marvelous record of God’s undeserved love, powerful acts of rescue, fulfilled promises, and covenant faithfulness. The people responded by saying, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods! For the Lord our God, he is the one who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, where we were slaves. He is the one who performed these great signs right before our eyes and protected us on the whole journey that we made and among all the peoples through whom we passed. The Lord drove out of our presence all the peoples and the Amorites who were living in the land” (Joshua 24:16-18). Seeing all God had done, the people vowed to live as salt and light among all the pagan peoples, “We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God!”

You, too, can make the right choice once the marvelous record of God’s love in Christ takes hold of your hearts. You respond to Jesus by making him your priority. That’s because Jesus first made you his priority. Everything he did – his incarnation, Baptism, desert temptations, holy life, and sacrificial death – were all for you. You did not choose Jesus. He chose you from eternity to be his own.

As God’s children today, know that God has defeated enemies far fiercer than the Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites or any other “ites”. Sin is squashed. Death is doomed. The Devil is defeated. The gates to the heavenly Promised Land stand open. It’s a land flowing with milk and honey. It’s a land filled with green pastures and quiet waters. The Holy Spirit washes you clean of sin with his Baptismal waters flowing from his baptismal font. God feeds you with his heavenly manna of his Son’s body and blood upon his altar. In this land of the high desert, Jesus quenches your spiritual thirst with his forgiveness, love, and mercy. God the Father and God the Son sanctify you with God the Holy Spirit to be able to prioritize your choices.

Joshua gave a clear and creedal confession of faith that has stirred God’s people for almost three and a half millennia, “But as for me and my household—we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15)! His words are a bold and unashamed statement of personal commitment to the Lord. Even if he must stand alone – as he and Caleb did before they ever entered the Promised Land – he will serve the Lord.

That’s the kind of commitment God wants in every aspect of our lives. I know a family that would drive two hours one way to go to a WELS church in Ohio, because there are no WELS churches in West Virginia. I know a gentleman who reads his Bible every day in the lunchroom. Not only is it his devotion time, but it is also his witnessing time. I know an elderly widower who donated his time to a hospice home because that home had taken such good care of his wife in her final days. I know a now-sainted homebound lady who would have four offering envelopes filled and ready to give me each month when I visited her for devotion, prayer, and communion. Even though she couldn’t come to the house of the Lord, she supported the house of the Lord in her prayers and with her offerings.

These are people who prioritized the choices they made. Stories like these abound. I pray you can add your story of prioritized choices to these stories.

Sadly, we have often chosen false gods over the one true God. We often place our own convenience and comfort over the worship of the Lord. We often choose to hide our light and cover our salt. Still, God in love has chosen us, made us his own in Baptism, redeemed us through the blood of Christ, called us to saving faith by the Gospel, and sanctifies us with his Holy Spirit. Still, Christ forgives us, daily and richly blesses us, and lavishes on us all the riches of his grace. Though we are often not committed to him, our Lord is committed to us. Though we often do not prioritize the Lord, in his grace and mercy, the Lord always and forever prioritizes us.

Remember that God’s commitment always comes first. The people in Joshua’s day remembered how God had forged a covenant with their forefather Abraham, how the Lord had rescued his people from Egypt, and how the Lord worked his mighty power to bring them into the Promised Land of Canaan. It was God’s free and faithful love for them that moved them to say, “We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God!”

Many are afraid to commit to anything so they just drift through life. Others make half-hearted commitments to competing values, which leads to frustration and mediocrity. Make the choice today to be committed to the Lord who is committed to you. Put away the gods of self and sin. Through the Holy Spirit, join Joshua in his life of salt and light. Make the right choice. Be committed.

So, whom are you going to serve? The world or the Lord? The world promises pleasure and happiness but often disappoints and never truly satisfies. The Lord never disappoints and always fully satisfies. The world doesn’t care if you get hurt along the way. The Lord cared so much that he sent his Son Jesus to die in your place. The world can only offer temporary gifts. The Lord’s gifts last into eternity. Every day God places a choice before you. So, whom are you going to serve? Lord willing, you will answer as Joshua did. “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Amen.