Children’s Sermon

Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25

Decision Time

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Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25

Decision Time

Object suggested: A wallet.

Let’s talk about the decisions we make each day. We decide what to eat, when to go to bed, what clothes to put on, what to read, who will make a good friend. Can you think of more examples?

Most of the examples we listed would allow many choices. When you decide what to eat you could choose between a peach or an apple, bread or a cracker, soup or yogurt, or you could choose one of each.

Now let me give you an example of having two choices, but you must choose just one thing. Suppose you see a wallet lying in the street. It might have a lot of money in it. You can keep the wallet or you can try to return the wallet to its owner. This is a right or wrong decision. You must choose to do one thing or the other.

The Bible tells us the story of Joshua, a leader of a group of people called the Israelites and it is a story about making an important decision.

This group of people, the Israelites, had been slaves in Egypt and Joshua was one of the men who led them out to a new land. God had protected and helped the people during this journey, but some chose to worship other gods which, in this story, are called foreign gods.

Joshua wanted the Israelites to understand that they must choose to serve God or the foreign gods; they could not worship both. They had two choices and Joshua asked them to make one decision. He told them, “… choose this day whom you will serve…” (24:15).

Joshua made this important decision for himself. He said, “… as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh (the Lord)” (24:15).

Each one of us is also given this choice. We can choose to serve and worship God or do our own thing without God. It is the most important decision you will ever make.

Scripture quotations from the World English Bible