Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25

It's all about choices. We make choices every day. We choose how we will dress. We choose what we will eat. We choose what we will do. You chose to come to church today instead of staying home.

Choosing is part of being a human. "But what if I choose not to choose?" Then that itself is a choice. Let's say you have to make a choice between going to work or not. If you refuse to make that choice before long it will be too late to go and circumstances will have made the choice for you. We call that choosing by default. Not making a choice pushes you in one direction or the other.

Some choices are more important than others. "Do you take this man to be your husband, this woman to be your wife?" Some choices are not so important: "Do you want fries with that?" So making decisions, either intentional or by default is part of being a human. We make those choices each day. It is inevitable.

Joshua said to the children of Israel, "Choose this day whom you will serve." The children of Israel were about to enter the Promised Land. This was a drastic change in their lives. They had spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness. They had lived in tents and were about to begin living in houses. Their entire way of live was about to undergo a drastic change.

When our lives change choices have to be made. You know people are more likely to get involved meaningfully in a church when they have recently moved. Joshua knew this. Many of their ancestors had worshiped false gods in Egypt. They had worshipped the one true God in the wilderness. But the people of the land they were entering worshipped a whole different set of gods.

What would they worship: the gods from Egypt, the gods of the Canaanites, or the one true God? They needed to make an intentional decision. They would end up worshipping something. They needed to set their standards and priorities before circumstances pushed them into choices they would regret.

They made the right choice. They said, "We will serve the Lord for he brought us out of slavery and cared for us in the wilderness." But this was a big choice. Did they really mean it? Were they taking this decision seriously or would they forget it when they settled down in a house and their neighbors were worshipping the gods of the land?

So Joshua forced the issue. He said "No, you can't be serious. God will take you seriously and there will be consequences if you go back on your word."

The decision to serve God is a serious one. If you decided to serve the Lord it will affect your whole life. It is not just a commitment to show up to church once in a while if it is convenient. It means that every day every action every moment is to be lived for the Lord. Sometimes that commitment can be inconvenient or even painful to live out. It means that you no longer belong to yourself you belong to God!

Despite Joshua's protests the people insisted, "We will serve God." Joshua said "Mark your own words, and remember this choice." So Joshua made a covenant with the people to serve God and God alone. And there on the verge of entering the Promised Land the people made a promise to themselves and God. They made the choice to serve God.

But did they follow through? Sometimes yes, and sometimes no. You can read the rest of the Old Testament and at times they served God. But at other times they didn't. They often served the gods of the nations around them.

But God was with them through it all. Even when they were carried off into captivity in Babylon God was there. They had made a choice. And God took that choice seriously, so seriously that even when the people went back on their word, God called them back to faithfulness.

Choose you this day whom you will serve. Will you serve the gods of this world: the gods of materialism and hedonism and meism? Or will you serve the one true God of the Universe who gave his only begotten Son for your sins. You have to make a choice. Not choosing is itself a choice that will lead to some other god.

Whom will you serve? This is a serious choice. It is not to be taken lightly. If taken seriously, it will change your life. Everything you do, everything you say, will be for God.

Whom will you serve? If you make the choice, God will take it seriously. Even if you forget your choice, God will remind you. Even if you neglect this commitment, God will stay committed to you.

Choose this day whom you will serve, as for me and my house we will serve the Lord!

Matthew 25:1-13

Can I borrow a cup of sugar? I know. No one borrows a cup of sugar any more. That is so cliché. But there are times when we need to borrow something. Circumstances back us into a corner, and we need to borrow a car or a TV or a telephone.

I remember the year Melissa and I got married. I was still in seminary and we were living in an apartment. To save money we didn't bother to get cable. Well the Clemson - Carolina game that year was on a cable channel. When I discovered this I went to our next door neighbor, who was also a seminary student and who had cable. So we borrowed her living room for an afternoon to watch the game on her TV.

But there are some things you just can't borrow because they can't be exchanged from one person to another. You can't borrow love. That is something which has to come from one's own heart. You can't borrow a good relationship. That is something you have to develop on your own. And you can't borrow faith. No matter what the circumstances and no matter how much others would like to loan you these things they just can not be loaned from one person to another.

Jesus' disciples asked him, "When will we know that the end of the world is coming?" Jesus' response goes on for two chapters of Matthew's Gospel. About half way through Jesus tells a parable about borrowing. It seems that there was this girl who had asked 10 of her friends to be bridesmaids for her wedding. Five of these bridesmaids were level headed and five were scatterbrained. The five level headed ones knew that the groom was coming from a long way and could arrive at any time of the day or night. So they brought enough oil to see them through to the time when the groom would come.

The five scatter brained ones did not. They fretted over their hair and their dresses and who they were going to dance with at the reception. But they didn't think about the oil for their lamps. So they didn't bring enough.

It just so happened that the groom was delayed. They all slept and then at midnight the call came that the groom was at the edge of town and that he would be there any minuet. The scatterbrained bridesmaids realized their lamps were running out so they turned to the level headed ones and said, "Can we borrow a cup of oil?" The level headed ones said, "If we loan you some, then we will both run out." You had better run to the store and buy some before the groom gets here. So they ran to get some, and, lo and behold, the groom arrived. By the time they got back the doors were shut and they were left out.

Now there are a few things that just don't add up in this parable. Why couldn't someone who was not in the wedding party go and get the oil for them and why couldn't they get into the party after the door had been shut? As usual in Jesus' parables there is more here than meets the eye. In the Parables a wedding is a symbol of the coming of the Kingdom or as we would say, the second coming. The groom is Jesus and the bride is the church. The bridesmaids here represent the individual believers who are waiting for Jesus to return and be finally untied with the church.

So too the oil is more than just oil. You see oil is what makes the flame burn in a lamp. Without oil there is no light to shine in the darkness. The oil represents faith, or the Holy Spirit, or a vital relationship with God. Which ever it is, it's that thing in a believer that makes the light of God shine in their lives through dark times. We don't know when dark times are coming and we all need to have a strong faith relationship with God to make it through those times.

The problem is many Christians don't develop a deep faith. They maintain a shallow supply of faith - just enough to see them through the everyday troubles. Then a disaster strikes. Someone dies or an illness devastates them. When that happens it is too late to develop faith. In the midst of a crisis is not the time to try to learn how to depend on God.

And you can't borrow soul oil. You can get help from a Christian friend but you cannot borrow their faith. A vital relationship with God is something you have to develop on your own. So go buy some oil today! Start making daily conversations with God a part of your life. Study His word and deepen your faith. You never know when darkness will come. If you want to be able to shine some light in the darkness of your life, get to know Him while it is still light. Then you will know Him in the darkness.

Amos 5:18-24

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

I've got some bad news and I've got some good news. I am reminded of a woman who said to her husband, "Honey I've got some bad news and some good news." He said "Let me hear the bad news first." She said, "You know I went to see the doctor the other day. Well he said that he would have to keep seeing me for the next eight months at least and that before he is finished with me I will end up in the hospital." Well the husband was devastated and he said "well what in the world can the good news be." And the wife replied, "We're going to have a baby!"

The phrase "I've got some bad news and some good news" is used to introduce a subject or a bit of news that is both good and bad. It is a two sided coin. The same event brings both bad and good fortune. Most of life seems to fit into this category. Almost everything has a good and bad side. We say that even dark clouds have a silver lining. Often the good news puts the bad news in a new perspective or visa versa. Like the couple I mentioned a moment ago. The good news put the bad news in a new light.

Amos the prophet who was inspired to write the book of Amos lived in a good new era. The people of Israel were optimistic about the future and they had reason to be. Israel was strong. They had been overshadowed by the Assyrian Empire for a while, but the Assyrians had grown weak. This weakness left a power vacuum in the region and Israel was more than willing to fill it. The people thought that all would go well and that if they were ever attacked they could defend themselves. They looked forward to the day of the Lord when God would come and destroy all their enemies and once again they would be the strongest nation in the world. They called that day the day of the Lord and they were confident that God would make them strong because they were God's people. In the mean time they confidently went about their profitable trades and were comfortable in their prosperity.

Despite all this good feelings about the future Amos saw problems on the horizon. While the people saw only the good, Amos had the foresight to see the bad. Amos could see that the people of Israel were corrupt. They cared nothing for the poor. He even wrote that the people of Israel would "sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of shoes." They cared more for their prosperity than for those in need around them. They also cared nothing about justice, but only for what they could gain from someone. They sacrificed and went to the temple, but Amos could see that they were not really worshiping God in their hearts.

So Amos said to Israel, "I've got some bad news for you Israel." "Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord." When that day comes, God will not bless you. God will judge you and find you guilty of so many crimes. There will be no way to escape the judgement of God in that day. God doesn't want to hear the sounds of your false worship. Let Justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream. Have you ever been caught in an undertow. The water pulls your feet out from under you and there is no place to grab on to right yourself. You are totally at the mercy of the water. That is what the justice of God will be like for the unjust. Amos was saying to Israel, "The bad news is that because you know nothing of justice God will cause it to come down on you like a tidal wave."

In contrast to the people of Amos' day, the people of Thessalonica, to whom I Thessalonians was written, lived in a bad news time. The Thessalonians had expected Jesus to return before they died. They were eagerly awaiting Christ's return. But he hadn't come yet. And some of the members of the church had grown old and died. Others had been martyred. And they wondered what would happen to them. Would they be part of the Kingdom when Christ returned or would they stay dead. They wondered if they themselves might die before Jesus came back, then what? I am sure they even began to doubt that Jesus would return at all. They probably also wondered why God did not stop the Romans from killing their brothers and sisters.

Paul heard reports of these worries so he wrote to the Thessalonians. And he said "I have some Good news." I want you to know that those who have died in Christ will rise again like the others. In fact they will enter glory before those who are alive. They will rise from the dead just like Jesus did. This was a word of hope for them in a desperate time.

Amos lived in a day when people thought all was good, but the Thessalonians lived in a day when all seemed bad. Today the signals are mixed. Some believe that all is Good. With mass communication abilities we can educate people easier. With new technologies we can conquer diseases. We in the Western Industrialized countries enjoy a standard of living that our grandparents could only dream of. However others see the darker side of things. It is only Industrialized nations that enjoy most of the technological advances while third world countries are exploited to make our technological toys possible. Our industry is polluting the environment to the extent that me are altering the climate of the entire globe. And despite our mass communication and education ignorance and prejudice still causes injustice and the enslavement of people just because of the color of their skin. Just look at the middle east; the place where human civilization is the oldest the people are still killing each other because of what tribe they belong to.

I've got some bad news, but I've got some good news. The bad new is that judgement day is coming upon this world. And for many that will be a day of darkness and not of light. We live in a rebellious time. And when Jesus returns I am sure he will not like much of what he sees. Christ will cause Justice to roll down like a mighty river washing all evil off the face of the earth. God's judgement will be upon those who have sold the poor for a pair of shoes. The good news is that when Jesus comes again the dead in Christ will rise. Those forces which had persecuted the church in the past will be done away with. The evil that would have silenced the praises of the Church will be wiped out of existence. The entire creation will be cleansed. There will be a new heaven and a new earth. And the faithful will dwell in the presence of their Lord forever.

The question is are we ready? Are we expecting this coming. Because if we are not ready it will take us by surprise. The way to be ready is to live our lives every day for Christ as if he were coming with in the hour. "Are we ready?" That is not just a question for those outside the church. It is a question for each of us. It is not just a question for those who have never trusted in the Lord It is a question for all who wish to trust in the Lord.

I've got some bad new and some good news. The bad news is that the Judgement Jesus is coming like a rushing stream and if we are not careful we may be caught in the undertow. The good new is that for those who are ready for his return it will be the beginning of an eternity of Joy with only the memory of evil. Are we ready? Are we? Really?