14 “Now therefore fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24.14-15 ESV)
In this text Joshua urges Israel to choose the God who had rescued them from bondage, delivered them across the wilderness, won all their battles and chosen them to be His “treasured possession”. (Ex. 19.5) In short, they could choose to serve the only true God they had ever encountered, or from a great number of counterfeit, impotent “deities” whose value did not exceed the materials from which they were made. This was not a both/and proposition: YHWH would not permit Israel to serve HIM alongside these other deities. (Ex. 20.3) Israel would have to decide whether HE and HE ALONE would be their leader, their king, their God, or whether they would follow any other.
You and I have a similar choice today. There are a great many things we could put our faith in: Our own abilities, our country, our ideas or our accumulated wealth. Our highest source of authority might be ourselves or the collected “knowledge” of social media opinion (shudder). These may have the appearance of possessing power, security, happiness, or fulfillment, but they are in the end just as powerless as the little statues that dotted conquered Canaan.
Our other choice is to serve the only true God you have ever encountered. The “God who made the world and everything in it” (Acts 17.24), who gave us “life and breath and everything” (vv.25), who gave His only begotten Son to save us from sin (John 3.16). Only THE ONE who gave life can save from death if we will serve Him “in sincerity and faithfulness.” (Josh. 24.14)
In 2026, whom will you serve?
May we resolve to stand with Joshua, & choose God.
Kyle Sanders
Kyle has been preaching since 2016 in Chiefland, Florida and Clinton, Mississippi before coming to work with the Jamestown church of Christ in 2021. Before preaching, he spent several years as a high school mathematics teacher in Indiana, Kentucky, and Florida. Kyle is a teacher at heart and brings his love of studying and interacting with students into his preaching and teaching efforts. He and his wife, a native Hoosier, have been blessed with five children, two dogs, a full house and zero leftovers.