His Presence Is The Promise
September 2, 2026
Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel, and they presented themselves before God. Joshua said to all the people, This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says:
Long ago your ancestors, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods. But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the Euphrates and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. I gave him Isaac, and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I assigned the hill country of Seir to Esau, but Jacob and his family went down to Egypt.
Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I afflicted the Egyptians by what I did there, and I brought you out. When I brought your people out of Egypt, you came to the sea, and the Egyptians pursued them with chariots and horsemen as far as the Red Sea. But they cried to the Lord for help, and he put darkness between you and the Egyptians; he brought the sea over them and covered them. You saw with your own eyes what I did to the Egyptians. Then you lived in the wilderness for a long time.
I brought you to the land of the Amorites who lived east of the Jordan. They fought against you, but I gave them into your hands. I destroyed them from before you, and you took possession of their land. When Balak son of Zippor, the king of Moab, prepared to fight against Israel, he sent for Balaam son of Beor to put a curse on you. But I would not listen to Balaam, so he blessed you again and again, and I delivered you out of his hand.
Then you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The citizens of Jericho fought against you, as did also the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites, but I gave them into your hands. I sent the hornets ahead of you, which drove them out before you—also the two Amorite kings. You did not do it with your own sword and bow. So, I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.
“Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
-Joshua 24:1-15 (NIV)
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Joshua comes to the end of his life and stands before the Israelites and declares, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
John Wesley, writing about Joshua 24:15, exclaimed, ““They that are bound for heaven must be willing to swim against the stream, and must do, not as most do, but as the best do.”
“As the best do...”
We are called to give God our best. All of us fall short of that goal. Just look at the disciples and their abandonment of Jesus; yet, we are to continue to get back up after we fall, giving God the best we can, working to fulfill the purpose that we have been given.
As Paul wrote in Philippians 3:13:
...but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
“Must do, not as most do, but as the best do.”
Joshua believed this:
Now therefore revere the Lord and serve him in sincerity and faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt and serve the Lord.
Joshua tells the Israelites earlier:
Therefore, be very steadfast to observe and do all that is written in the book of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right or to the left...hold fast to the Lord your God...
Joshua tells them that they must not “transgress the covenant,” must not “incline their hearts” to other gods, must not “forsake the Lord.” They must not turn aside from God, “neither to the right or to the left.”
Joshua tells them, “Do, not as most do, but as the best do” when he declares, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord...”
Over the last six weeks, we have been talking in this blog about Joshua and his leadership of the Israelites into the Promised Land.
Moses died, and Joshua stepped into leadership, leading the people into the Promised Land. God told him, “Be strong and courageous,” “Do not be terrified,” and “Do not be discouraged.”
God stopped the waters of the Jordan River, and the Israelites crossed on dry ground, with the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant. Afterwards, Joshua had the Israelites build a memorial on the banks of the Jordan using twelve stones so they would remember what God had done.
We read about Rahab, the prostitute, hiding the Israelite spies in her house in Jericho. She had heard about the God of Israel, and she chose to believe. By hanging a scarlet cord in her window as instructed, she and her family were spared when the Israelites marched around the city and the walls came tumbling down.
We watched as the Commander of the Lord’s army appeared before Joshua, reminding him that the battle belonged to God. The victory at Jericho would not come because Israel was stronger, smarter, or more strategic. It would come because the Holy God was faithful to His promises.
God had a much larger plan than Joshua could see—a plan much larger than the Israelites and the Canaanites. What looked like a battle over a city was part of God’s unfolding plan of redemption for the entire world. Israel had been chosen to introduce the world to the one true God and to prepare the way for the coming Savior.
We talked about how our sin is not private. Every one of us, through our choices, releases something into the world. Achan’s sin released consequences that affected an entire nation.
We saw Joshua pray for more time to accomplish what he had been called to do when the five Amorite kings attacked the Gibeonites. The sun stood still, the Israelites fought, and the Amorite kings were defeated. Joshua reminded us that we must work like it depends on us but pray like it depends on God.
The Promised Land was then divided among the twelve tribes, with each tribe receiving an inheritance they were called to build upon.
Now, after approximately twenty-five years of battles and settling the land, Joshua is nearing the end of his life. He is described as “old and advanced in years.”
He stands before the people and challenges them to remain faithful—to hold fast to God, to resist anything that might lead them astray, and to remember all that God has done.
And then Joshua makes one of the most powerful declarations in Scripture: “As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
Before we declare that we will serve the Lord, it is important, as Joshua knows, to remember “WHY” we are called to make such a declaration.
We serve because God first loved us.
We do not serve out of obligation. That is legalism and it leads to frustration and death. We cannot earn God’s love. We cannot make up for our past mistakes and sin. We serve out of gratitude, remembering the many blessings in our own lives, the many ways God has been there for us throughout our journey.
Paul understood this truth. Paul declares in Philippians 3:12, “Not that I have already obtained this or have already reach the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.”
Out of gratitude for what God has done.
Once we understand the “Why” – Why we should serve God – the question becomes, “What does it look like to serve the Lord...to give our best to God?”
First, what does it look like to serve the Lord, to give God our best? It means Staying Focused.
To give God our best, we must constantly refocus our lives on Him. We must let go of who we have been, who the world tells us we are, and everything that keeps our eyes from being fixed on God.
But we cannot do this in our own strength. The Christian life is not about trying harder to become better; it is about surrendering more of ourselves to God. The more we surrender, the more room we give God to work in us and through us.
The more we surrender, the more we will be able to focus upwards.
What does it look like to serve the Lord, to give God our best? Secondly, it means Loving Others, making relationships sacred.
To serve God is to love God with our whole hearts and love our neighbors as ourselves. These relationships are more important than any ministry, meeting, decision, or vision. We are called to love our spouses, teach our children about God, and treat every person as our neighbor, regardless of their background or how different they may be from us.
But loving others the way Christ calls us to love requires more than our own strength. Our patience, forgiveness, compassion, and grace have limits. We need God to love through us.
Again, The Christian life is not about trying harder to become better; it is about surrendering more of ourselves to God. The more we surrender, the more room we give God to work in us and through us.
The more we surrender, the more we will be able to love others.
What does it look like to serve the Lord, to give God our best? Thirdly, it means Living in Obedience.
To serve God means obeying His direction, even when it is difficult or inconvenient. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
We must be strong enough to stand for what is right and resist the temptation to be controlled by our impulses, emotions, anger, lust, or pride.
But even here, we cannot win the battle through willpower alone. We need to surrender the things we have been trying to control and allow God to fight the battles we cannot win ourselves.
Once more, The Christian life is not about trying harder to become better; it is about surrendering more of ourselves to God. The more we surrender, the more room we give God to work in us and through us.
The more we surrender, the more we will be able to live in obedience.
This past week, our church, went to see the play, Joshua, at Sight & Sound.
The play stressed this truth when they sang, “Burn the chariots, burn the chariots.”
In Joshua 11, after the Israelites defeated the northern armies, Joshua was instructed to hamstring the horses and burn the enemy chariots.
They were not going to keep the very things that could tempt them to place their trust in military power rather than in God.
We can keep trying to control our lives, protect ourselves, prove ourselves, and depend upon our own strength—or we can surrender.
The more we surrender, the more God can do through us. The more we surrender, the more room we give God to work in our hearts and through our lives—to help us stay focused, love others, and walk in obedience.
But there is another truth we discover when we surrender, another truth emphasized in the play, Joshua at Sight & Sound.
God did not promise Joshua that the road ahead would be easy. He did not promise there would be no battles, no obstacles, no moments of fear or uncertainty. He did promise Joshua something better: “I will be with you.”
His presence is the promise.
I have only ever had moments of contentment. I have always wanted more. I’m the type of person that is planning our next vacation while on the current vacation. I’m the type of person that cannot celebrate a milestone like publishing a first book, because I’m working on the next one.
Like so many of us, I have spent much of my life asking God to change my circumstances…to make the path easier, remove the obstacle, fix the problem, give me the answer, show me what is coming next. And if I’m honest, I still ask God to change my circumstances.
Yet, deep down, I know the truth.
There is nothing in this world—no bestseller, no trip abroad, no house, no amount of money, no plan I can come up with—that is going to give me the peace I long for or the contentment I seek.
God’s Word is clear about this. Isaiah, speaking of God, declares, “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you” (Isaiah 26:3).
Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27).
Such peace, such contentment, such joy can only be found in Christ.
And even though I know this truth…even though I know that His presence is the promise…that it is only in His presence that we will discover the peace and contentment we seek…even though I know that the path to His presence requires us to burn the chariots—to surrender, to let go, to trust Him completely—I still struggle to let go.
I continue to ask God, through His Holy Spirit, to help me surrender what’s left, whatever it may be that I’m holding on to, that is distracting me from this moment God has given me. It is a daily battle.
But like Joshua, even though I fail, I have chosen my direction.
After all Joshua experienced—the battles, the victories, the failures, the moments of fear, the answered prayers, the inheritance, and the faithfulness of God—he comes to the end of his life and makes his declaration: “As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”
Joshua has seen enough to know that life will not always go according to plan. He has seen people succeed and fail. He has seen the consequences of disobedience and the blessings of faithfulness. He has watched God do things that only God could do. And after all of it, Joshua is still standing—and he is still choosing God.
That is not a statement about having everything figured out. It is a statement of direction. It is a decision about who we will trust, who we will follow, and what will define our lives.
Even as we struggle to surrender everything…even as we hold on to the things of this world…even as we pick back up the things we have already given over to God in prayer…even in the middle of our failure to let go, we choose Him.
We forever declare, “As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”
And so, we get back up and we continue moving toward surrender—burning the chariots, letting go, trusting Him with what we cannot control—because deep down, we know the truth:
Whenever we surrender a part of ourselves, we discover the promise.
We discover His presence.
And His presence is enough.
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