Joshua 24 - Rocky Mountain Calvary



Joshua 24

“Choose Whom You Will Serve!”

Scripture: Joshua 24:1-15

Memory Verse: “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve…But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15

Lesson Focus: To choose God before anything else!

Activities and Crafts: Coloring Picture, Cross Word Puzzle

Craft for 1st Graders: Banner – announcement of whom they will serve

Craft for 2nd Graders: Name Tag

Introduction: Bring in several brown bags filled with different things (suckers, gum, trash etc). Choose several kids to come up and give them a choice to choose one bag each. Have them open their bag and show the class what they chose.

Tell the class that today we are going to talk about making choices. These kids chose a bag, but they did not know what was inside. We are going to see today in the Bible that God asks us to make a choice. He asks us to make that choice even before we know what is going to happen.

Bible Study:

Joshua:24:1-2

√ Who did Joshua gather together?

√ Who is Joshua speaking for? (the Lord God of Israel)

√ Who did their ancestors serve? (other gods)

Joshua 24:3-12

√ What did God do with Abraham?

1. He took him and led him

2. He gave him a son (Isaac)

√ What other famous Bible names did you hear in this passage?

Moses and Aaron

√ What does God take credit for in these verses?

1. rescuing them from Egypt

2. Victory over Jericho, Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites the Hivites and Jebusties.

Joshua 24:13

√ What did God do for Israel?

1. Gave them the land

2. Gave them the cities

3. Gave them the food

√ Did they win the battles?

√ Did they build the cities?

√ Did they plant the vineyards?

God is reminding them of what He has done for them. They did nothing to get this land. God fought every battle for them. God gave them everything that they have.

Joshua 24:14-15

Because of what God has done for them…what are they to do?

1. Fear God

√ What does it mean to fear God?

It means to have the right attitude towards God. God deserves to be feared in an attitude of awe and reverence that gives Him honor in everything. In other words we do not treat God like we treat people. He is the creator of everything and He alone deserves our praise and honor.

Psalm 1:7; says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.”

When we have the right attitude towards God we begin to understand who we are compared to God. His is God and we are not! God has paid the price for our forgiveness of sin through Jesus. When we begin to understand who God is, then we put God first in our lives.

2. Serve God in Sincerity and Truth

√ How do we serve God?

Romans 12:1; “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God which is your reasonable service.”

What this verse is telling us is that we are to serve God by giving Him our entire selves. Our bodies mind, soul, heart and our physical body are to be used for God. When I present my body to be used by God – I give God everything. That means that everything that I do with my body I do to serve God. I serve God by living for Him. I don’t separate my life into times that I serve God and times that I don’t. All of our life every day and every moment are given to Him.

√ Do we serve God to be saved?

We are only saved through Jesus. We don’t do things for God so that we will get on His good side.

√ Why do we serve God?

Lot’s of times we do things to get noticed. We say funny things so that people will laugh at us. We help our Mom so that she will give us allowance. We are kind to someone so that they will be our friend. God loves us. He loved us enough to send His Son to pay the price for our sins. We serve God because He is God and we love Him.

√ How do we serve God in sincerity and truth?

Sincerity means to behave in an honest way

Truth means the quality or condition of being true

Both of these words together mean to live authentically. In other words do not be a fake!

3. Put away any false gods.

√ What is a “false god”? (Anything that replaces God)

It does not have to be a little idol – it can be anything in our lives that we give the most attention to.

Name some things that replace God.

Idols can become passions, things we love and doing things that we know are not right. People often will compromise what they believe because they follow the passions that are not in the Word of God.

Joshua 24:15:

Illustration: Pick three kids and have them choose 3 kids to be on their team. Tell them that we are going to see who has chosen the best team. The teacher will give them something to do and the team that does it the longest wins. (all of them on the team have to do it together.) Ask the teams to stand up. Tell them to do the following: Stand on their left foot. The entire team that does it the longest wins.

Just like these three kids chose who they wanted to be on their teams, every day we make choices.

√ Name some choices that you make every day?

√ Are all of our choices good ones?

Joshua asks them to choose this day whom they will serve.

√ Who does Joshua choose to serve?

√ Do you think that you have a choice who you serve?

√ Can you quote John 3:16?

1. God loved

2. God gave His Son

3. We believe – we choose to believe in Jesus

4. God gives eternal life.

Everyone chooses! God never forces Himself on anyone. Everyday we need to decide if we are going to serve God or not.

To serve is to obey!

Joshua chose God. The book of Joshua shows us that Joshua chose to obey and serve God no matter what.

1. Joshua obeyed God when God told him to meditate on His Word

2. Joshua obeyed God when God told them to march around Jericho 7 days silently.

3. Joshua obeyed God when God told him sin was in their camp

4. Joshua obeyed God when they one the other victories to win the land.

5. Joshua served God by doing what God told him to do.

6. Joshua always chose God first.

7. Joshua led Israel by obeying!

To choose is to make a deliberate effort to obey.

Conclusion:

√ Do you choose to serve God?

√ Do you choose to serve God first with all of your life?

√ How do you choose God?

1. First you believe in Jesus as your Savior

2. You give Him your life by obeying God’s Word.

If you believe in Jesus as your Savior but are not obeying what is in God’s word, then you are not choosing God. You are choosing yourself and you are living for the idols that you have in your life.

√ Who do you choose?

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