The Importance of Choices
We face choices everyday in this life and many of those choices are important ones.
God doesn’t want us to be afraid to make choices in life because we are afraid we will make the wrong choice and be outside of His will.
But God doesn’t want us to make wrong choices either so He gives us guidance and direction and teaches us how to choose Him.
Now you may have many unanswered questions about God and part of your inability to make the right choices for Him is that you want to have it all figured out before you act. You want the writing on the wall. You long for the A-Ha moment in your life, then you will proceed. Or maybe you wish you were Moses and could see a burning bush that never burned up or you were Paul and could be blinded by a bright light and hear the audible voice of God. Or maybe the disciple Thomas is who you wish you could be and place your finger in the nail scarred hole in Jesus’ hand.
Here’s what I want you to think about.
When you become a follower of Jesus Christ, that doesn’t mean that all of your questions will suddenly find answers and you will everything figured out. Becoming a follower of Christ does mean that your questions shrink and you fall in love with the One Who created you.
Many Christians struggle over decisions. Does God have a specific plan for me? The answer is that He does and He wants you to know it so we look at the choices we make and how they affect our lives and the lives of those around us.
► Our choices make a real difference.
Joshua 24:14
At this point the Lord’s message to Israel had ended. It was Joshua who said, “Fear the LORD.” Fear, however, may either be destructive or saving. If we fear God, we will not need to fear his judgment (cf. Heb 12:28-29). The very first commandment is “You shall have no other gods before me” (Deut 5:7), because the worship of the Lord cannot be combined with idolatry. We are shocked to learn, then, that it was necessary for Joshua to command the Israelites to “throw away the gods” here at the end of his career as their political and spiritual leader.
Over these twenty-plus years, it appears some of the people began to fellowship with their neighbors and participate in their false worship. This was an exhortation that would be needed down through the generations and an exhortation that God’s people still need today,
no matter who they are or in what generation they are living. It is a warning that is constantly needed by believers.
It is hard to imagine that the Israelites would still be worshiping idols after they had experienced so many of the Lord’s great miracles and victories. Joshua called the people to give undivided loyalty to the Lord as the only way to experience his presence and blessing in the future.
Israel’s choices made a real difference. Our choices make a real difference.
Our choices make a real difference.
► We face many choices each day to serve the Lord.
Joshua 24:15
Now if you are not a follower of Christ then you probably question what it means to serve Him.
A good way to illustrate this is to think of a server at a restaurant. Isn’t it the role of the waitress to do what you ask? Isn’t she to follow your instructions?
What would you do if she was suppose to bring your order but instead sat down at a table and started painting her nails?
Being a servant of Christ is doing what He says.
I’ll say what you are thinking and that is, You see people who call themselves Christians and yet they act like the devil. They treat you rudely. They are unkind. They are unfriendly.
I friend of mine told me this past week that he and his family went to a certain church and the members treated each other much better than they treated the guests…
So, I agree with you in a lot of ways, just remember that not everyone who claims to be a Christian really is and some just need to learn what it means to serve the Lord and put it into practice.
When you reach a point in your life where you realize that you need help beyond what anybody humanly speaking can offer you, then you are ready to commit your life to following Jesus Christ.
► We can make the right choices because Jesus Christ shows us how.
Joshua 24:16-18
Joshua’s appeal produced the effect he was looking for: “Far be it from us” (v. 16) was a response involving both the will and the emotions. In denying the charge of idolatry, the Israelites asserted that the Lord had always been and always would be the object of their worship (v. 18).
The Israelites made a strong confession of renewed dedication.
They recommitted themselves to serve the Lord. In this confession they were renewing their commitment and covenant with God.
If there are a thousand steps between us and God, he will take all but one. He will leave the final one for us. The choice is ours. — Max Lucado, Leadership, Vol. 17, no. 2.
Jesus made a choice to come and to die for our sins. We read the story and we read how Jesus was forced to carry the cross up Golgotha but the truth is a thousand legions of armies could not have forced Him to do it if He had chosen not to.
Jesus shows us by example how we are to live, not just the things we are to do as important as they are, but the reason we do what we do.
Tags: Carl Pooe, Church Plant, Essentials Church, Heritage, Joshua 24, sermon, Southern Baptist, The Factory, Wake Forest