{"id":5782,"date":"2018-01-16T11:19:06","date_gmt":"2018-01-16T17:19:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/?p=5782"},"modified":"2018-01-16T11:19:06","modified_gmt":"2018-01-16T17:19:06","slug":"will-serve-lord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/2018\/01\/16\/will-serve-lord\/","title":{"rendered":"We Will Serve the Lord"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Kelly Epperson<\/strong><br \/>\nAfter conquering the land of Canaan, Joshua called the Israelites to\u00a0Shechem. It was here that he delivered one of the most powerful speeches recorded in history, telling the people,<span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n&#8220;Serve the Lord! And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of 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&#8221; Joshua 24:14b-15 (NKJV).<span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335551550&quot;:3,&quot;335551620&quot;:3}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\nMost people know the stand Joshua made for himself and his family. It is very important, though, to note how the people responded to Joshua&#8217;s call for action. They answered him,<span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n&#8220;Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; for the Lord our God is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way that we went and among all the people through whom we passed. And the Lord drove out from before us all the people, including the Amorites who dwelt in the land. We also will serve the Lord, for He is our God&#8221; Joshua 24:16-18\u00a0(NKJV).<span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\nIn their reply, the people gave 3 reasons for serving the Lord: 1)\u00a0He brought them out of bondage, 2)\u00a0He saved them from their enemies, and 3)\u00a0He was their God. Those same reasons apply to us today. Let&#8217;s examine them closer:<span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>He brought us out of bondage.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The Israelites were referring to their bondage in Egypt. God, through His servant Moses, led the people out of slavery. Today, while slavery is outlawed in this country, it is all around us. Many people live their lives in bondage to sin. Paul makes this comparison in Romans 6. He then says, &#8220;But God be thanked, that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that doctrine to which you were delivered.&#8221; What doctrine?\u00a0The doctrine of Christ.\u00a0God sent His Son to die on the cross, which gave us an opportunity to escape the bondage of sin and live a life to God, through obedience to Him. At the time of Moses, God used the 10 plagues and other signs to prove that He was God. Christ also used miracles to prove He was the Son of God. After His death, the apostles were given the power to perform signs to confirm the Word. Now, we have a record of those signs in God&#8217;s Word, still proving today that His Word is True.<span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\nImagine what joy, what thankfulness, what relief\u00a0was\u00a0shown by those slaves\u00a0who were set free 150 years ago!\u00a0We should have that same gratitude to our Lord, who has set us all free from sin. We should serve the Lord, because He brought us out of bondage.<span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ol start=\"2\">\n<li>He saved us from our enemies.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>When leaving Egypt, the Israelites faced many enemy nations. The Lord was faithful, and defeated these nations, saving the Israelites from destruction. Today, God saves us from our enemy, that serpent of old, Satan. When we come into contact with the blood of Jesus Christ through baptism, God removes our sins, and we are saved from Satan&#8217;s hold. The ultimate power Satan possessed was death (Genesis 3, Romans 5), but Christ destroyed the power of death when He was resurrected 3 days after His crucifixion (I Corinthians 15:55-56). When we become Christians, death loses its power for us. The grave has no hold any longer. For this, we should serve our God, who saved us from our enemies.<span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ol start=\"3\">\n<li>He is our God.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\nWhen the Lord commanded Moses to go to Egypt, to set His people free, He said, &#8220;I AM WHO I AM&#8221;\u00a0(Exodus 3:14).\u00a0The very existence of God is so powerful, that it\u00a0<i>demands<\/i>\u00a0our reverence and obedience. The wicked ask, &#8220;Who is the Almighty that I should serve Him?&#8221; The\u00a0righteous respond,<span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n\u201cHe is the God Who created the Heavens and Earth from nothing.<span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\nHe is the God\u00a0Who\u00a0formed our being from dust.<span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\nHe is the God Who lifts up the humble and destroys nations.<span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\nHe is the God Who sees our hearts and discerns our thoughts.<span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\nHe is the God\u00a0Who\u00a0makes the earth tremble and the winds obey.<span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\nHe is the God Who loves us and sent His Son to die for us.<span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\nHe is the God\u00a0Who\u00a0allows us to accept or reject Him, in spite of all He has done for us.\u201d<span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\nWhy should we serve the Lord? We must serve Him because He brought us out of bondage. We must serve Him because He saved us from our enemy. Most of all, we must serve Him because He is our God.\u00a0Our wonderful, loving, fearsome\u00a0God.<span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Kelly Epperson After conquering the land of Canaan, Joshua called the Israelites to\u00a0Shechem. It was here that he delivered one of the most powerful speeches recorded in history, telling the people,\u00a0 \u00a0 &#8220;Serve the Lord! And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[52,66],"tags":[1333,120,1051,1344,1284,1345],"class_list":["post-5782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-think-excerpts","tag-april-2013","tag-family","tag-feature","tag-house","tag-kelly-epperson","tag-servant","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>We Will Serve the Lord - Focus Press<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/2018\/01\/16\/will-serve-lord\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"We Will Serve the Lord - Focus Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Kelly Epperson After conquering the land of Canaan, Joshua called the Israelites to\u00a0Shechem. 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