“Make Good Choices Today”

/in /by

“Make Good Choices Today” (Joshua 24:14-24)

Series: “A Time for Everything”

Pastor Nate Walther

17th Sunday of Pentecost (9/20/2026)

            “Make Good Choices.”  Maybe you’ve said those words before to your kids or to a friend.  Maybe you’ve heard those words before from a parent or a teacher.  Sadly, they are words that need to be said.  As obvious as it may seem to say, “make good choices,” we still often choose to do what’s wrong and what will only hurt us (or others) the end.

            Indeed, if you’re a biblically-minded individual—or, if you’re just burned out on life and you’ve moved past those idealistically youthful days!—choice itself may seem like an illusion.  For example, the biggest choice you could ever make, faith in Christ yielding eternity in heaven?  A lot of people think of that as a choice they must make.  But do you realize the Bible never speaks that way?  Whenever the Bible speaks about coming to faith, God is always the one who chooses that for us.  But here’s the misnomer: it’s not that God hasn’t given us freedom of choice.  (He has!)  The problem is what we end up choosing when left to our own devices. 

That’s what God’s people needed to hear in our sermon text from the Book of Joshua.  It was a new day.  After wandering in the desert for 40 years because of the sinful choices of a previous generation, God has given this next generation of Israelites a fresh start in a land of their own.  And that left them with their own choice. They could rid themselves of bad influences—such as the gods their forefathers had picked up in Egypt, or the new gods which they might encounter in this new land—or they could rid themselves of the true God and what he wanted.  On paper, the decision seems obvious.  They should choose the LORD as God!  But their leader Joshua explains, it wouldn’t be so easy.

In our sermon text, Joshua reminds them that their ancestors once faced the same “easy choice”.  But they messed it up.  Abraham’s forefathers chose idols beyond the River in Mesopotamia, and likewise his descendants chose false gods in Egypt.  So Joshua calls on this new generation to make good choices… but notice where the focus is.  They didn’t need to worry about the past.  They realized God had still been good to them, he had forgiven Israel’s sin, he had gotten them to this point.  But the present still mattered. So, Joshua encourages them, “Choose for yourselves today whomever you will serve.” Then, as a good leader, Joshua models the correct answer, “As for me and my household—we will serve the Lord.”  And the people are quick to agree.  Of course they are!  It was obviously a good choice when they saw all that God has done for their nation in delivering them from Egypt.

So are you surprised by Joshua’s response?  “You are not able to serve the Lord, because he is a holy God.”  Joshua has a point.  If God truly is holy, that means he cannot tolerate sin.  And there’s the issue. Conviction and choice won’t cut it.  As Joshua reminds them, sin and rebellion will still elicit God’s jealousy (he wants our allegiance!), and it will still lead to disaster.  i.e. Joshua is really trying to get his people to think about what they are saying!  And give them credit, after wrestling with his words and thinking about how much conviction they really had, they still chose right on that day: “No! We will most certainly serve the Lord!”  Finally, Joshua encourages them to then act according to that choice.

There’s a lesson in there for us.  Some choices we don’t have to worry about.  For example, you don’t have to worry about mistakes that were made in the past.  (They’re forgiven, and God’s grace has carried you to a new day!)  And you don’t have to worry about hard choices you’ll have to make tomorrow.  (God’s already there, there’s nothing you can do about it right now.) But MAKE GOOD CHOICES TODAY.  And if they really are good choices—godly choices—realize that it will be hard.  It’s usually much easier to do what’s wrong! But, still, choose to do what’s right. 

For the Israelites, those difficult choices revolved around idolatry.  (We can hardly imagine it, but they lived at a time when each nation had their own gods, and the moment things went south it was tempting to see if another god could do better for them.)  As for us, what choice do we struggle with?  What’s our version of idolatry?…  May I submit to you: it’s just as much idolatry!  What things do we place before the Lord in our hearts, and we trust them to give us better outcomes than he does?  I’m sure we could illustrate this in any number of ways, but as we focus on the stewardship of our God-given time, talents, and treasures with our new worship series, don’t we see it there especially?  Do some of us need to part with some precious time that we idolize, as we always tend to put ourselves and what we want in front of others and what they need?   In close connection to that, do some of us need to part with some precious talents that we horde for ourselves, rather than using them for others who haven’t been blessed with such ability?  Or, do some of us need to sacrifice precious treasure that we place before God, as (this is just one of many examples we could imagine on this topic) we tend to look to money to get us through life’s troubles more than we actually look to God to help?  And that’s just in the area of stewardship.  It’s to say nothing of other idols.

It’s no wonder we don’t ultimately choose salvation!  So quickly we just gravitate to sinful vices!  And the ultimate vice?  Just like you can wave a $100 bill over a dead body all you want—it won’t reach up and grab it—the Bible says in no uncertain terms that we are born dead in sin—we can’t reach up and grab God’s free gift of salvation on our own.  In spiritual deadness, sin is all we know how to choose. No matter how good our choices seem to be, we always gravitate to things that will simply not last in the end!  The only solution is that God would pity us, resuscitate us, and give us life.

Do you realize, that’s exactly what God chose?  Take our sermon text: God wasn’t fooled by any of this.  He knew the Israelites would rebel against him just like their forefathers, and that they would choose other gods in the future.  He knew they were lying to themselves even when they didn’t know it yet, and it would break his heart.  But still, on that day, he chose them… It’s a picture of a greater story to which this and all other accounts in Scripture ultimately point.  That’s also where we come in.  Just like our sinful forefathers, God knew we would rebel against him and choose other gods instead of him. Still, what did he choose for us?  Hell, except for his own son instead.  God consciously thought about it—he had all eternity to go back on this decision!— and still he chose to destroy Jesus on the cross, so that with him our sin would be destroyed as well.  In this way, God chose us to be saved.  Then, since we would never reach out and grab it on our own, God additionally chose to place this in our hearts through his Spirit.  The Holy Spirit used water and the Word to connect us to everything that Jesus earned for us, and he worked through others who brought these means of grace into our lives—giving up their own time, talents, and treasures to make it happen!

It’s what sets God apart from any other idol.  Every other god in your life offers instant gratification, but fails to deliver in the end.  Seriously, name one that has!  Even our excess time, talents, or treasures: whenever we hang onto these things for ourselves, it may give us something good in the moment, but what does it really offer that will last?  On the other hand, think of what God offers.  It took God over 400 years to return Israel to the Promised Land under Joshua, and thousands of years to keep his Promise to send a Savior, but he still kept those promises.  So also, serving the same God of the Bible and doing what he says will yield good things for us in the end, even if we must sacrifice some time, talents, or treasures (or any other idol) in the present.

Dear friends in Christ, this is why there’s so much we don’t have to worry about.  You don’t have to live under the shadow of past choices and past mistakes.  Nor do you have to worry about tomorrow or even eternity itself. Not when God is happy with us right now.  Not when God has forgotten our past sins right now because of Jesus.  Not when God is preparing a future for us in heaven right now in his Son Jesus… So MAKE GOOD CHOICES TODAY as those for whom God has already made the best choices. That means making good choices with your time & talents.  Do the things God says he wants you to do.  You know what that means.  Work hard in whatever God has called you to do.  Help others who don’t have the time or ability.  Pray for others when you have time to do so and they’re busy trying to handle what God has given to them.  In all of this, take some time for yourself, because you need that also.  And spend some time volunteering for good causes in the community, sure!  But also, make sure you donate no small time to your church, because the work we do here with the message of Jesus is invaluable.  Likewise, make good choices with your God-given treasure. Do the things God says he wants you to do with it.  You know what that means.  Provide for your family.  Save for the future.  Be faithful with your taxes. In all of this, use some money on yourself because you need that also.  And spend some of it on others to show them your love, of course!  But also, make sure donate no small amount to your church, because, again, the work we do here with the message of Jesus is invaluable. 

All these things matter!  The Bible encourages us to do them all!  So make these good choices because you love the choices God has made for you, and you know he’ll deliver for you in the end.  And let’s be clear—just like Joshua told the Israelites—it’s going to be hard to give up time you could be using for something else or money you’d prefer to spend on yourself.  But you have a God more worthy of your heart than these gods.  Because of him, we don’t have to worry about sins in our past, nor do we have to worry about where you’re going in the future.  Just worry about today and choose whom you will serve.  That’s where we can say along with Joshua,  “As for me and my house?  We will serve the Lord!”  Amen.

“A Watchman Who Listens”

/in /by

Series: Unexpected Truths”

Pastor Nate Walther

15th Sunday of Pentecost (9/6/2026)

This summer our family climbed one of the old fire towers east of the Smoky Mountains along the Blue Ridge Parkway.  These watch towers were built early in the 20th Century as a first line of defense against forest fires.  Someone would man these sites, scan the horizon at all hours of the day, and when they caught sight of that first wisp of smoke, they would immediately phone it in on a dedicated forest service line.  It also made these watch towers the most important line of defense against forest fires.  If you didn’t stop the fire before it spread, it could easily grow beyond containment

            As we climbed this old fire tower, abandoned some 100 years later, it struck me how difficult life must have been for these individuals, and how lonely they must have felt suspended between earth and sky.  They were constantly exposed to the elements, and they wouldn’t see another human for weeks on end.  We got a feel for that ourselves as we climbed it with the wind howling, the tower creaking, and not another no soul in sight.  We agreed we wouldn’t want to live in a place like that, even though we very much appreciated those who were willing to do so!

            Today’s sermon text describes how God called Ezekiel to be a watchman, because there were many similarities between his role and what we just described.  But there was also one key difference: God called Ezekiel to be A WATCHMAN WHO LISTENS.  And we do well to listen also, because God calls us to do likewise, and his voice helps with such a difficult task.

            Ezekiel was originally meant to be a priest, but in our sermon text he is serving as a prophet instead.  The two roles may sound the same to us—pastors today are sometimes called “priests” today, and their work may sometimes be described as “prophetic” in nature—but in Old Testament times these were completely different positions.  Where prophets went out among the people and shared what God had to say with a sometimes unwilling audience, priests performed sacrifices at the temple in Jerusalem as people willingly came to them.

At least, that’s how it used to be.  But then God’s people rebelled against him for the hundredth time.  Then God finally made good on many warnings over a thousand years to send them into exile.  Then the Babylonians began to carry away God’s people from Israel.  That’s where Ezekiel found himself: in Babylon, far away from the temple, no longer able to serve as the priest he was trained to be.  But far from his work being over, it was just getting started. God now called Ezekiel to be a prophet, though he had no formal training for it.

It’s because God saw his people needed this most.  Despite their sin, they still weren’t taking their sin seriously.  Instead of repenting, they pinned their hopes on the fact that as long as the temple still stood back at home, God was there, and he would fix things soon. But God knew the temple would soon fall.  News of it comes in the very next chapter of Ezekiel.  God would allow this because his people needed to come to grips with sin and its consequences.  And that’s why he sent them Ezekiel: to call out this raging fire of sin, so that the fire could be contained before it destroyed them.

Our sermon text hammers this point home. Right from the start, God calls Ezekiel a “son of man”.  We’re familiar with those words as a title for Jesus, but there wasn’t really anything special about them. “Son of man” was a basic way that Hebrews talked about human beings.  In fact, it helps explain why Jesus adopted this title for himself! He wanted to highlight that he was truly a human being, but he also wanted to draw attention away from himself (as the son of God) before his time had come.  For Ezekiel, it just highlights how ordinary he must have felt, especially when God called him to be a watchman “for the house of Israel”…  How overwhelming that must have sounded!  Like a watchman would call out danger that approached a city, Ezekiel was to announce such news for the one true God’s chosen nation.  Talk about responsibility!

With that, notice something curious at the end of verse 7, “Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you are to warn them from me.”  In that we find a clue: this task wasn’t just about what Ezekiel saw, nor was it about the difficulties of the job.  It was about listening to God, which would impact everything else. Namely, verse 8, when Ezekiel listened to what God said was evil, and when he saw someone living in sin, he was to warn them about it.  If he didn’t, God says he would hold Ezekiel responsible for their sin as well, just as watchmen are responsible for those under their care. Again, it’s a heavy burden.  But it wasn’t all bad. Verse 10, if Ezekiel warned them, and if they came to grips with the reality of their situation, then as Ezekiel continued to listen to God, he could share a very different message.  Verse 11, Say to them, “As I live, declares the Lord God, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from their way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why should you die, O house of Israel?…”

            Now it’s true that despair isn’t enough.  Feeling bad about your sins and feeling sorry for yourself won’t fix anything.  Because if they didn’t “turn” from your sins—which is literally the same word we translate as “repent”—God said the guilt would remain on them.  “Why should you die, O house of Israel!…” But that’s not what God wants. Instead, he wants this: “As surely as I live, declares the Lord – which is God literally swearing on himself! – I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they live…” and then God pleads with his people to repent.  Almost like we might get down on our hands and knees, God repeatedly begs them to come to their senses.  And as he spoke from God, that’s what Ezekiel’s job was ultimately about in the end.

            Like watchmen in a fire tower, those prophets had lonely, difficult lives.  But was it important work?  Definitely.  We’re talking about matters of life and death, where the stakes are literally heaven and hell.   If the people can’t see that clearly—if they can’t see the forest for a few trees—it is vital that they have someone watching over them who can warn them.  And we get that.  It’s why we rightly honor watchmen like those policemen who keep an eye on our physical well-being when we’re asleep at night.  So also, shouldn’t we honor spiritual watchmen even more?

            I know what you’re going to say. You do appreciate us pastors!  I can’t begin to tell you how many people in my short year here have expressed appreciation for all that we do!  Thank you. I know you mean it.  It’s just like how we understand the importance of Christian parents who raised us well, or good Christian friends who have always pointed us in the right direction. We truly see the value of that!…  At least, until we’re being called out. Until we are told that the sin we like is actually endangering us!  And we should be grateful in those moments.  Here’s something that could literally kill us in more ways than one, and somebody cares enough to say something! Yet what is our natural instinct?  Fight back!  That’s how deadly our sinful nature is!  I saw it in my first parish.  I could have 10 years of a really good & really blessed relationship with someone.  But the moment I had to call out a sin that they committed?  Everything changed.

            Don’t we all struggle with that?  Perhaps it’s even why you shy away from this kind of work yourself.  Maybe you see something that doesn’t look right, but you think, “I’m not trained as a pastor.  Am I seeing that right?”  Or maybe you think, “Who am I to judge?  Besides, they won’t respond well to me!”  Those excuses sound very sensible in the ears of the world.  But they blatantly ignore what God tells us in his Word.  There he simply calls out what is right and wrong, and he wants us to do likewise.  I mean, if we hear truth from God but we don’t say anything when we see differently in someone’s life, God makes it clear today: he will hold us responsible for their blood!

            When you think about such responsibility… thank. God. for Jesus.  Because wherever we are responsible for the sin of others, and wherever our own blood should be spilled for staying quiet, Jesus spilled his.  And it meant infinitely more coming from him! For all the lonely moments we have in the wilderness of this life–perhaps feeling suspended between heaven and earth as Christians, like those watchmen in a fire tower–Jesus had it worse.  Not by climbing up to safety of a heavenly watchtower, where he could safely view the fire from a distance and warn us: “Hopefully they’ll listen!”  No, he descended down into the raging inferno of hell where he climbed on to a tree set ablaze by the fire of our sin.  Indeed, he perished on that cross. 

            It couldn’t be more clear. God loves you.  God means it when he says, “I don’t desire the death of anyone but that they repent and live… Why will you die?  Why, when I burned my own Son for your sins, and then raised him to give you life?…  Repent!  Turn from that sin!  Find life through faith in my son Jesus!…” Yes, be thankful for watchmen.  For pastors who have not been trained to do what’s easiest or what will make the most people like us, but we have been trained to listen to God, to scan the horizon carefully for smoke, and to warn people – whether they want to vacate their homestead of sin or not. And be thankful for good parents who tirelessly raised you in the faith throughout your childhood as well – maybe you wandered away at some point, yet here you are back in church, in no small part due to the foundation they laid. Also, be thankful for Christian friends who didn’t give up on you—perhaps even when family did!—but not them, and they also didn’t give up on sharing God’s Word with you.  And especially, in all of this, be thankful for Christ.

            But don’t stop there.  If you’re thankful for this, be someone whom others can be thankful for as well.  Because we all share in this ministry. Whether you’re trained to be a “prophet”, or you’re trained differently like Ezekiel was at first, anyone can be a watchman.  That is, anyone can listen, watch, warn, and love.  (In fact, where someone may not listen to such a warning precisely because it comes from a “trained” pastor, they very well may listen if it’s coming from someone like you – someone they know and trust.) 

Of course, go about it in the right way!  First, when you’re looking to correct someone’s behavior, take the plank out of your own eye—make it clear to others that you’re approaching them as someone who has repented of sin and needs rescue too.  Then, follow Jesus’ pattern in our gospel (Matthew 18:15-20): talk to others first before you bring it to anyone else.  (So often, people don’t do that.  I can’t tell you how frequently people come to me about someone’s sin, but they haven’t talked to the person first!  Is it any wonder that this fire spreads so quickly and so out of control?)  Finally, use tact and be loving as you do this…  But in the end, do point out sin.  Because sin’s fire is deadly.  If you don’t put out that spark quicky, it will spread and grow out of control.  Again, if we’re ultimately talking people being saved from the dangers of sin & the fires of hell, this matters more than anything else you will do in your life.  That’s why it’s not enough to just have a few pastors or a few trained prophets doing this.  This is a calling for all of God’s people.

            So be a WATCHMAN.  A watchman who LISTENS.  Don’t miss the last part.  It helps with all the other difficult parts.  And you’re not alone, we’re in this together.  But even when you feel like you’re alone, there’s still a voice that never leaves you, who promises you good things as you go about this hard work, who never asks us to go down into that fire ourselves.  He already did that, you’re safe.  Just listen, just watch, just warn.  And know that however people react, you’re doing good work.  Amen

September Newsletter Article

/in /by

“The king rejoices in your strength, Lord… Great is his glory in your victory.” (Psalm 21:1,5)

It’s September again.  Soon the leaves will be changing color.  It’s a time of the year that always reminds me of running Cross Country back when I was in school.  To this day—whenever the air again grows crisp and cool, and the leaves begin to crunch underfoot—I am always transported back in my mind to swifter, younger years and good memories.

One of the many traditions our Cross Country team used to have back at Martin Luther College was to elect a Bible verse to serve as our theme for the year.  Since many of us were pastor track guys, that Bible verse was (of course) in ancient Hebrew.  And there was nothing quite like gathering in a circle with the guys and putting our hands together, before  shouting in Hebrew at the top of our lungs.  One year our chant was this: Gadol kevodo bishuatecha, or in English, “Great is his glory in your victory!” (Psalm 21:5)

It was a needed reminder.  When we won the conference championships my junior year after multiple injuries and a season with many unexpected turns, it was definitely a God-thing.  But even when everything goes according to plan and you work hard and accomplish something great, still, why is that?  Why didn’t the ball bounce the other way?  Why did you manage to have the strength on that day when others didn’t?  Why did everything come together just so?…  Was it really you? 

As I’ve gotten older and seen all that can go wrong in this world, Psalm 21 rings truer and truer with every passing season.  If we want success, if we want victory—if we want the ultimate victory of salvation over sin—it his to be through Him.  God is the only one who can truly restrict the sin that is at work in every person and prevent it from preventing you from being successful.

Without the Lord our efforts will fall apart.  Only with him do we find victory and glory.  It’s true for kings, and it’s true for you.  It’s true in every season of life, and it’s true in this season too.   So whatever challenges and difficulties a new year in school or another year at work or another passage around the sun brings to you… God will achieve great victory for you in this season as well.  You can be sure of it because he has already achieved the greatest victory over our sin at the cross in his Son, Jesus. 

–Pastor Walther