You Must Choose
November 24, 2024
Philippians 3:17-21
Joshua 24:14-15
Choose this day whom you will serve.
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The Christian faith is often mischaracterized as living a better life. While I truly believe that living by God’s ways will lead to a better life—just as a good diet and exercise will lead to better health—God’s promises and love are far more than a better life.
In Philippians 3, the Apostle Paul invites people to join him in choosing and standing firm in the Lord rather than pursuing the fleeting and false promises of transient and temporary pleasures of earth. Instead, like Jesus, he calls us to live out the true meaning of heavenly citizenship - living lives that reveal God's love and grace, and having the same attitude as Jesus who lovingly gave himself for our sake.
As the Israelites, through God's power, had conquered much of the Promised Land, Joshua called for them to choose whom they would serve: the gods and ways of their past or the Lord who delivered them from slavery. They must choose. But Joshua and his family would serve the Lord.
