Choose This Day- Rowland Heights Chinese Community Church

• Ted Ewing introduced my church to a place way up North called JH Ranch.
• JH Ranch has become for many of us our most favorite place to be in the world. It’s beautiful retreat place up in the mountains of Northern California.
• One year, I remember our whole group was so excited to get up there to spend a whole week.
• When we got there, after a 12 hour drive, we step out, and I wanted to get right back in and go home.
• It was the dead of summer, and it felt like 100 degrees of dry heat. I’m the type of guy who’s generally out going and excited to be around people, but when it’s that hot, I shut off and I don’t want to be around anyone. Don’t even talk to me.
• I pull some guys over to pray for me, because I’m seriously lacking the energy to want to be there.
• So as we’re praying, these bulls come charging us from behind the brushes! We get up and start taking off for our lives. Our hearts are beating and adrenaline is rushing!
• We said, “God you’re quick!” But we were half joking and decided to keep praying.
• As we were praying, I feel a drop of water hit my face. And I think the dude is spitting on me.
• But I feel it again, and we look up and it starts pouring down rain! We all run for cover because the clouds had come and the rain was pouring down.
• That day was a powerful testimony of God’s faithfulness to answer prayer.
• At the end of JH Ranch, Ted gave each of us a slice of a tree trunk. We were to write down what God showed us at JH Ranch as a memorial to what God has done.
• Every time we see these pieces of wood, we were to be reminded of what God had done.

1. Commemorate the Past (v. 1-13)
• Here’s Joshua, in the last of his days.
• He has literally fought the good fight, he has served the LORD faithfully.
• And as one of his last acts of leadership, he draws all the Israelite leaders, elders, judges, and officials together at a place called Shechem.
• Now Shechem was a landmark in Israelite history.
• Shechem was the very place where their patriarch, Jacob (Gen 35), was told by God to gather his household there and build and altar to God.
• Jacob and his household got rid of their idols and jewelry, and buried it right there at Shechem.

• And now, with all the praise that Joshua deserves, for a life well-lived, he gathers them not in his name or in his presence, but it says that they gather before the presence of God (v. 1)
• He gathers them at the end of his life, not to remember his life, but to remember the LORD. To commemorate Yahweh and his mighty works.
• And the LORD takes this generation of Israel down memory lane to remember how Yahweh has saved them time and time again.
• And not only does he save them from harm, but he blesses them in the process.
1. Do you Remember when God saved you?
• When he saved your Father Abraham, your most celebrated Patriarch, and he delivered him out of the Idolatry of your fathers?
• And not only did God save him, but God Blessed him by giving him many descendants?
2. Do you Remember when God Saved you?
• When he saved you from slavery out of the hand of the Egyptians and brought you out.
• When he saved you from the Egyptian army who trapped them up against the Red Sea, But God causes the sea to split for you and to crash on them?
3. Do you Remember when God Saved you?
• When God saved you from the hand of the Amorites.
• When the attacked you, God put them at your mercy.
• And not only did God save you, he Blessed you by giving you their land!
4. Do you Remember when God Saved you?
• When God saved you from Balak, who wanted to fight against you, and he sent Balaam to curse you.
• And not only did God save you, He blessed you by causing him to bless you again, and again and again.
5. Do you Remember when God Saved you?
• When God brought you across the Jordan and into Jericho, and saved you when the people there tried to fight you, along with the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites?
• And not only did God save you, but he blessed you over and over by giving you the land and abundance that you didn’t even labor for? They made the land abundant, and God gave it into your hands!
• God just delivers them over and over and over.
• And not only does he merely save them, just Blesses them over and over and over.
• Joshua calls the people to commemorate the past and remember what the Lord has done.

• Church, do you remember? it is good to remember what the Lord has done.
• We were discussing in Sunday school at my church, and one person asked, sometimes it’s so easy to forget how faithful and good God has been in our lives. How do we not forget it when things get hard?
• I raised my hand, and said “That’s easy. Just remember.”
• Brilliant, right?
• No but really, God has been so good to us, and his goodness and faithfulness is all around us, how do we keep from forgetting what God has done? Remember it.
• Be intentional and find ways to commemorate what God has done.

• God is good, amen? Has God been good to you? Amen?
• And he’s been good to me! But why is it that whenever I face my next struggle or trial in life, I forget all that the Lord has done for me and I weep and pout and feel so hopeless in this current situation?
• Why is it that when it gets miserably hot and nasty and I’m hating the world, do I forget about the times when God sent the rain and brought refreshing?

• The Israelites were gathered together to commemorate and remember the LORD, how time and time again he Saved them, and blessed them, Saved them, and Blessed them….
• What has the Lord done in your life? How will you remember? How has he saved you? How has he blessed you?
• We have to be intentional in our ways to stop occasionally and remember, to go back and be reminded of how faithful God has already been.
• PSALM 13: David cries out to the Lord in his distress. He’s on the brink of death, hanging on for his life, and he cries out “How long, oh Lord, How long?!”
• And after a whole prayer for venting and expressing his sorrow, he ends the Psalm with a song of Praise….
• He says “I will rejoice in his salvation. I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me.”
• God had delivered David from death time and time again…. From men, from armies, from sickness, from lions and giants and bears!
• He decides to intentionally remind himself by singing to the Lord for how he has been good to him.
• Some of you are musical… write a song
• Some of you are journalist. Keep a journal, or maybe an online blog. I’ve started a blog to record things the Lord shows me or teaches me in my life. On there I have sections where I record answered prayers as God answers them to remind me of how he’s working in my life.
• Build a monument, collect a souvenir, write a poem, paint a picture.
• God has been so good, but it’s so easy to be blinded and stricken with a case of amnesia every time temptation or difficulty or suffering confronts us.
• Do you remember the God who has saved You?
• Do you remember, when God saw that you were his enemy, and he still gave you his Son to die for your sins?
• Do you remember when Christ died for you, was put in a grave, and three days later, God does the physically illogical and impossible by raising him up from the grave to conquer death for you, so that you would never have to perish?
• Do you remember the times where he not only saved you, but blessed you?
• How he keeps pouring out his grace upon you?
• When he gives you grace by gifting your spiritual gifts, when he gave you joy and peace and abundance of life? When he gave you eternal hope? When he changed your situation and has been making you into a new person?
• The LORD saw that it was important to gather the people together to remember the LORD in their life.
• Do you remember the Lord in your life?

1. Choose This day (v. 14-15)
• At this point, Joshua, begins to exhort the people.
• In the past, Jacob called his household together there at Shechem, and together they got rid of their idols and objects of worship of foreign gods, Joshua calls this generation of his to do the very same thing, right there at Shechem.
• He says “Throw away the gods of your forefathers, and serve the LORD. Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the religion and gods of your ancestors, or the religion and the gods of this culture you live, the Amorites.
• Because everyone will worship someone.
• But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.
• You have a choice today whom you will serve. You will serve someone, it’s in your nature.
• But you can’t serve everyone. You either serve God, or you serve the gods.
• Choose this day whom you will serve.
• You can serve the gods of your ancestors, or the gods of the culture around you.
• But for Joshua and his household, they’ve already made up their mind whom they will serve.

• Brothers and sisters, the LORD has been so good to us. Remember?
• Remember all the ways he has been faithful to you, and so gracious to you, and so powerful to work in your lives.
• We all have a different story in here, but for those of us who have by faith, believe in Jesus as the Son of God and savior of our souls, remember that he has saved us from the grips of sin and death.
• He has blessed us with everlasting life with our Creator and the lover of our souls.
• Not just a blessing for future events, but he has been blessing us since we made that commitment, time and time again.
• Some of us are temporarily blinded by temptation or suffering you are experiencing right now.
• But if we open our eyes and remember, we will see the faithfulness and graciousness of God in our lives.
• Choose this day whom you will serve.
• Is God worth it to you? Is he greater than anything else in your life?
• John Feng: I was deeply impressed by a prayer of one of the brothers from my church. He was praying one night, “God, help us to prefer you over everything else in life.”
• IF it comes down to sin, or God, I prefer God!
• If it comes down to money or God, I prefer God!
• If it comes down to popularity or God, I prefer God!
• If it’s between finding love from another person and God, I prefer God!
• If it’s between pornography and God, I prefer God.
• EX: FIREPROOF. I was blessed when I watched the movie Fireproof. In the movie, there’s this couple who’s marriage is about to break up.
• One of the reasons was because of his addiction to Internet pornography. In one scene, he’s struggling with temptation, but knowing that that stuff hurts his wife and kills her inside, he rips out his computer, takes it outside, and in a godly way, destroys it with a baseball bat.
• But the best part is that when she comes home, she sees on the desk where the computer used to be a vase of Roses, and a note that says “I Love You More”.
• So here’s this thing that he loves in his life, something that had taken great priority. And yet, he made a choice, and said, “NO, I love my Wife more. I prefer my wife.”
• Would you be able to place a note in place of the temptations and sin that you face, and say, “God, I love you more.”
• I’m willing to give this up, I’m willing to not to gossip/look at pornography/ use foul language/ watch these movies/ talk about that girl/ , because I love you more. I prefer YOU over sin.
• Guys, God is SO good, and He’s so Worth it. He deserves the first and greatest place in our lives.
• And he says, there should Be NO other gods before me. There should be nothing else in this life that takes greater place than Me.
• Not the things we love. Not the bad sinful things. Not even things that are good. Nothing is to take greater place than God.
• Joshua says in v. 14-15 “choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
• Joshua is about to depart. He’s fought the good fight. He’s going on to be with Yahweh.
• And he lays it out before the people.
• “I’m not going to be with you much longer… make a choice this day. Who will you serve?
• Choose God.

2. Prepare for Tomorrow
• EX: Albert’s Step Dad: I have a friend named Albert who tells me an amazing story of how his step dad gave his life to Christ.
• One day in high school he felt the tremendous weight of his sin, and feeling guilty, left the dinner table and went to his room weeping.
• That night, a pastor in the city felt compelled to get a hold of this kid and get a hold of him. He finds him, and calls him, and tells him to come down to the church to meet him.
• Albert’s stepdad ran, not walked, ran to the church.
• That night, Albert’s stepdad learned about the forgiveness of God and gave his life to Christ.
• Imagine the scene: It’s like a rally or a revival meeting. And so the Israelites choose God, or at least they say.
• Joshua says choose this day whom you will serve, and they say “We choose God! We will serve the Lord!”
• They repeat the things Joshua highlighted and acknowledge how God has been so good and faithful to save them and bless them.
• Joshua tries to push back on them and says “You are not able to serve God! He is Holy and jealous for his glory. If you say that you will choose him and then forsake him, he will bring disaster upon you!”
• But they insist, and they say, “No way! We will serve the LORD!”
• So Joshua says “Fine, throw away all your gods right now and choose God.”
• And so Joshua builds an altar right there at Shechem under the oak, the same place where Jacob built his altar for his people, and it was to be a reminder and a witness of their covenant made to God that day.
• How many of us have made commitments to God before. How many of us have been quick to say “I choose this day to serve you! I give my life to you Lord!”
• But then sooner than later it’s back to the normal, mediocre life, living for self and chasing after the desires of this world.
• I have seen countless friends raise hands and a praise concert, commit their lives at a retreat, go down onto the field at a crusade, stand up at a revival meetings, and then quickly return to their old way of living.
• It’s a sad thing when people think that Christianity is merely praying a prayer or raising your hand at a Gospel meeting to ask Jesus into your heart.
• Coming to Christ is not a one time commitment, it’s a FULL TIME commitment.
• Jesus says in Luke 9:23 "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
• We must daily choose God. Daily make the decision to follow him by faith and to follow hard after him.
• ISRAEL: A generation later, after these Israelites raised their hands to the Lord, and committed themselves to throwing away false god’s to follow after Yahweh, they are back where they started.
• In the next book, its stays that after Joshua died, “the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals.” (Judges 2:13)
• It would do you good to be faced with the challenge of Joshua each day, “Choose this day whom you will serve.”
• In Heb 4:13 “But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.”
a. What day is it today? It’s today.
b. When you wake up tomorrow, what day will it be to you? Today.
c. How about in a month? It’ll be today.
• Just as we are encouraged to encourage each other as long as it is called today, I want to challenge you to plan for tomorrow.
• You can plan for tomorrow, by committing to each new day.
• As long as it is called today, “Choose this day whom you will serve.”
• EX: Albert was chatting online, and his friend im’s him and says check out this website. It’s a website called Megan’s Law, where sex offenders and sexual molester’s are listed so that people may be aware and keep their family safe. So my friend, Albert, checks out the site and decides to check his city for any sex offenders. A few pop up. He clicks on one, and the information pops up. It’s his own address. Meaning that there is a registered sex offender living in his house. He clicks on other links, and finds out it’s his step-dad.
• That’s right, the one who came to Jesus and for a while was going to church.
• Turns out that he also cheated on his wife, Albert’s mom, multiple times.
• Brothers and sisters… Remember the LORD.
• Commemorate his faithfulness and goodness. Remember how he has saved you and blessed you over and over again.
• Choose this day whom you will serve. Throw away your idols and the things that contend for the affection of your heart. Choose God.
• And Plan for tomorrow. Plan for tomorrow by making a commitment to day, that each day, when you wake up, you will “Choose this day whom you will serve”.
• Then take up your cross, and follow him at all cost.