Grace, mercy and peace through Jesus Christ, who is our greatest treasure. Amen.

Joshua 24:14-16,23-24 "Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. ¹⁵ But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD." ¹⁶ Then the people answered, "Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods! ²³ "Now then," said Joshua, "throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel." ²⁴ And the people said to Joshua, "We will serve the LORD our God and obey him."

Lord Jesus, you are our most treasured possession. There is nothing more valuable to us, more important to us than you. Those words come easily to our lips. However, Lord Jesus, putting this confession into practice in our lives is much more difficult. We want our witness of you to be a clear and consistent confession. That is why we come regularly to this church to learn to do. We examine our hearts and lives in the light of your Word. Send your Holy Spirit to work in us through Word and Sacrament to always make your our most priceless treasure – both with the witness of our words and with our actions. Amen.

When Abbey was little she always slept with her baby pillow and sucked her thumb. Miriam curled up with her monkey and sucked her third and fourth fingers. Lydia carries around her stuffed cow and sucks her second and third fingers. When our baby arrives, I’m sure she’ll have some kind of stuffed treasure that she’ll cling to as well. But she only has her pinky left.

A pillow, a monkey and a cow – these are treasured possessions. They bring a sense of comfort, peace, and tranquility. They are also so well-loved and well-used that their hair is matted, holes are worn in them and their stuffing is coming out. But the kids don’t care. They treasure these possessions.

Last week we started the series "Every Soul’s a Treasure." We reviewed how God treasures our souls. Today let’s focus on the opposite – that Jesus is our highest treasure! We can learn a lesson from our children about how they treasure something. Jesus is our security blanket. He is the only one who brings true peace, comfort and tranquility. But there is no way we could ever wear him out. So let’s always put him first in everything we do and make him well-loved and well-used. Jesus is our highest treasure because of everything that he did for us.

Joshua was nearing the end of his life. Before he dies at the ripe old age of 110, he gathers all the people together to renew the covenant they had made with God decades earlier. He challenges the Israelites with their commitment to the Lord. He says, "Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the 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 forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD." Then the people answered, "Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods! "Now then," said Joshua, "throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel." And the people said to Joshua, "We will serve the LORD our God and obey him."

Joshua is challenging them to remain committed to the Lord. You see, the Israelites always had trouble with false gods and putting God first in their life. Idolatry was the pet sin of the Israelites. Remnants of the worship practices of Abraham’s ancestors still had an influence. They’d added some of the Egyptians’ gods to their pantheon. The whole point of completely destroying the inhabitants of Canaan was so that they wouldn’t be tempted to worship their gods, but that happened anyway. As the leader of God’s people, Joshua says, "Get rid of ‘em! Get rid of every single false god! Give reverence to the LORD and serve him only!" The people reply by reaffirming their commitment to the LORD, their Savior.

Jesus tells us, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." All across the pages of Scripture, we see how we take first place in God’s heart. We are his treasure! Does the way we talk and act and live our lives show the same about him? Do we put him first in everything we do?

Part of us wants to insist that we are not an idolatrous people. We don’t bow down to statues of gold or wood or stone. We don’t offer prayers to the sun or trust in sorcery and mysticism. The gods of Greek and Roman mythology are nothing more to us than interesting reading. We fear and love and trust in God. But it’s the little phrase that ends the first commandment that trips us up – "above all things."

If you want to discover your false gods, study your calendar and analyze how you spend your time. Does it fall in line with, "Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God?" (Col 3:17) Or is your time and energy spent on the pleasures of this earthly life? Does the time you spend on yourself and your family and your job take away from the time you spend in and around God’s Word? Ask yourself honestly – is it showing God honor by attending worship once or twice a month? And even if you rarely miss a service, do you consider worship the high point of your week? Is it more important to spend fifteen minutes a day working out than it is to spend fifteen minutes a day reading your Bible? It is a sad commentary about the priority we put on Jesus when we see the majority of our school children and their parents only when the kids are singing in church.

The same minds and mouths that glorify and praise God, would make the devil blush with the kinds of thoughts and words that are there within us. We have hearts that flit from one idol to the next. Is that putting Jesus first in everything we do?

If you want to discover your false gods, analyze your checkbook register or credit card statement. Compare your weekly income to your weekly church offering. Jesus said that it is impossible to "serve both God and Money." (Matt 6:24) It comes down to one or the other. If our materialistic lifestyles prevent us from giving generous offerings to the Lord, that’s no less idolatry than bowing down to an image of Buddha. If our worries over paying the bills and making ends meet prevent us from giving firstfruit offerings to the Lord, that’s no less idolatry than presenting a sacrifice to Baal.

There are many people who now consolidate their cable, phone, and internet bills into one. That is roughly around $100. For some and maybe many, that is more than they give to the Lord in their monthly offerings. We spend more on a meal at Culver’s to feed our bellies than we give to our Lord for his ministry to feed hungry souls. We complain about school tuition costs and yet waste that same amount of money on frivolous items throughout the year. Do you think God is beaming with joy that he’s prioritized that way? Of course he’s not!

That is why Joshua’s challenge still speaks to us today. "Choose for yourselves today whom you will serve, whether the gods of the workplace or money or private time or sleep. Throw away these false gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord." In order to accept Joshua’s challenge to our commitment to always put Jesus first in our lives, we need to constantly review and recall everything Jesus has done for us. Then we can respond to Joshua’s challenge, "We will serve the Lord and obey him. As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord!"

In the verses preceding our text, Joshua gives an overview of about 650 years of the Israelite history, and the focus is entirely on the Lord, their Deliverer, and what he did for his people. He was behind Abraham’s move from Ur to Haran to Canaan, delivering him from the idolatrous worship of his ancestors. He was behind their incredible exodus from Egypt. He was the one who wiped out the Egyptian army in the Red Sea. He was the one who carried them through the desert and he was the one who gave them victory in battle against all their enemies. He gave them the bountiful land in which they were now living. Of all the things they treasured from the past, God’s work on their behalf had to stand at the top of the list.

Jesus is our highest treasure because of everything he did for us. Because he finished his Father’s work, your life has worth. Because he was forsaken, you will never be alone. Because he lived every second of his life in absolute holiness, that holiness is transferred to you. Because he suffered and died, you will not face the suffering of eternal death and damnation. Because he was buried, you can be raised. Because he lives, you don’t have to be afraid. Because he was raised, you can be strong. Because he left his home in heaven, you have a home reserved for you in heaven. Because he sits at the right hand of his Father, he works everything out for your eternal benefit. Because he reached down to you, you don’t have to work your way up to him. Because his promises are always true, you can have hope.

How can hearing how Jesus laid down his life as a sacrificial lamb ever become "old hat?" Jesus lived, suffered, died, rose, ascended, and rules all for you. How could that ever be boring or impractical or unimportant? Because Jesus did everything for us, we are committed to do everything in return for him. Whether that means money or worship or prayers or Bible study or witnessing or living a Christian life. We are committed to Jesus because he is so committed to us. He is our most treasured possession because we are his most treasured possession.

Let me give you some concrete examples of people demonstrating how Jesus is the most important part of their lives. One of our Friendship Circles gets together to not only clean the church, but is also now looking for projects around the church to fix. Home Guild, Home & School, IPSC and other donors put their money together to put up new playground equipment at the Lower School. The F.E.E.L. the Spirit Youth Group and their leaders spent long hours and late evenings fixing up and decorating the Teen Room in the Parish House. We are emailing sermons to people who miss church and giving recorded worship services to our homebound members on VHS and DVD, all so that more of our people are fed spiritually with God’s Word.

God has blessed us with two new members a few weeks ago. We have two new people in our adult confirmation class and one more spoke to me out of the blue wanting to join our church. We are making a concerted effort to reach out to our inactive members and encouraging them to receive God’s strength and forgiveness in his Word and Sacraments. We are training our children in the way they should go at home, in Sunday School, at WLS, at Shoreland, so they can live productive, blessed, Christian lives.

Probably one of the greatest challenges we have been facing recently in our church is money – or lack of it. It is very easy to become pessimistic about the subject of money and our future. We may think that a money problem is a big deal. But if money is the biggest problem we have in this congregation, we are blessed beyond belief. A money problem is nothing. You know what a doctrinal problem does to a church. You can imagine any number of other serious problems that may plague a church or Christian school.

The lack of money is easy to overcome. If Epiphany sends a few more kids to WLS, and First Evan does the same, and we actively go out to recruit into our school, WLS is then doing fine financially. If our members give a little bit extra in their offerings, are more regular in worship, are faithful in their financial sacrifices, then our church is doing fine financially. Look at our new C.U.P. program. We gave out 100 cups last week. We had to go out and buy 100 more. If everyone brings back a cup with only $10 in it, that is $2,000 given one time – from loose change! And we are doing this for 6 months. God is taking such good care of us. We never have to worry about anything – least of all money. For God has promised, "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all-- how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" (Rom 8:32)

When we have to struggle with money or anything, God knows what he is doing. He doesn’t ever want us to become complacent or let things come to easily for us. He wants to challenge us, to find new and creative ways of carrying out his ministry. He challenges us the same way that Joshua challenged the children of Israel.

The Lord challenges us, "Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. Throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord." As often as we have mis-ordered our priorities, God accepts our humble and heartfelt repentance. Among the many things Jesus has done for us, he has even forgiven us for chasing after false idols. And gazing upon Jesus and the treasures of salvation he amasses for us, our priorities start to rearrange themselves. We commit ourselves to the Lord and the work of his kingdom. "We will serve the Lord our God and obey him." Amen.