"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 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." - Joshua 24:15
The climax of Joshua's speech following the Israelites' victory over the Amorites is powerful. Yet again the Gospel message is communicated to a vast amount of people in just a short moment of time. Imagine how filled with the Holy Spirit Joshua must have been at this point.
I hope you have felt the same at some point in your life; the overwhelmingly sweet taste of victory in the Lord. And how does Joshua respond? How do the people of Israel respond? They ALL dedicate their families, their homes, and all that they have to the Lord. Because, you see, that is where communicating the Gospel has to begin – home. Abraham did it; Jacob did it; Joseph and Joseph did it; Boaz did it; Joab did it; Lois and Eunice did it (2 Tim. 1); and the list goes on and on and on.
We each have a responsibility to communicate the Gospel within the walls of our own homes. You can read on your own how the above listed men went about it. Wives go about it through helping their husbands as they were created to do (Gen. 2:18); they are representatives of their husbands (1 Peter 3:1); and they should encourage, love, and defend their spouses. Parents do so by bringing their children to the Lord (Mark 10:14-15) and teaching them who their true father is (Luke 2:49), for they are to go about doing his business, too. Strangers are to be welcomed and shown hospitality, love, and respect (Gen. 18, Matt. 25), and those that oppose us are to be shown the same (Matt. 5:39). (Please don't be confused about Jesus' feelings for the Pharisees and Sadducees; he would have loved nothing more than for them to accept their redemption, too.)
We also have to be direct about communicating the Gospel to our loved ones and those that we meet; we have to say aloud, in the words of Joshua, "as for me and my house we will serve the Lord!" We have to tell our spouse, our children, our neighbors, and all that we meet that God has been victorious. We have to tell them that our hearts cannot be turned from Him; for He has died that we might live; and the joy that we have because of this is uncontainable. We have to tell them that our confidence and assurance in His love and promises overflows daily. Win or lose - this relationship, this game, this job, this family member, this car, this house – Jesus Christ is our victoriously reigning King forever and ever!
Praise God!
Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson
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