Choices
Notes
Transcript
Life is filled with choices. We get up in the morning and make a choice about what we are going to have for breakfast. We make a choice about what we are going to wear that day. We make choices about what we are going to do during the day. We make choices about what we buy at the store. We make choices about the car we are going to purchase.
We make choices all the time.
This past week has been a great example of choices that we make. Many of us went to the voting place to vote for our candidate for president, congress person, state office holders, and many others.
Some today are very happy that their candidate has been declared the winner of the presidential election. Others are deeply grieved that their candidate did not win.
I would urge all of you, no matter who you voted for to extend grace to those of a different opinion when it comes to politics. Politics can be a very divisive issue, particularly when it is brought into the church. Now is not the time for division, now is the time to come together in unity.
As I was preparing for this week, I had a great laugh and praise at how God had worked out the scripture for this morning.
I believe that this scripture is a message that needs to be heard in the church and in our world.
I’ve told you before that I often hear people talk about being a Christian but yet they do not go to church and they do not demonstrate that Jesus has made any difference in their lives.
This is a very dangerous way to live your life because you eternal destiny is at stake.
Just saying that you are a christian does not make it so. Being a Christian means that you have confessed your faith in Christ, been forgiven and you proclaim Jesus is Lord. Each day you take up your cross and follow Him.
The simple truth is this, if Jesus is not Lord of your life, then Jesus is not Lord at all.
Somehow, someway, in our culture today, we've fallen for this false notion that Jesus is just one option among many options in our quest to know God. I believe that in reality this notion has existed for a long time. There is this idea that if I just call myself a Christian, then I'm really a Christian. But sadly, that is not true.
If you hear nothing else that I say this morning, here this. Being a Christian means that you are stating categorically that Jesus is Lord. That has been the call of the church since its earliest days. During times of persecution men and women in the church have stated that Jesus is Lord even if it meant their death.
In our nation. It is so easy to hear about God, and Jesus. There are TV stations that are dedicated to preaching a form of the gospel. There are preachers who will preach that God wants everybody to be healthy, wealthy and all the while they're asking people to send in money to them to support their ministry. We are bombarded with those kinds of messages. One of the most popular preachers in our nation preaches this type of message.
That message is not the message of the gospel. The message of the gospel is that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the father.
I sense our restlessness in our world today. Monday through Friday I work with some of the most broken people that there are. I talked to them about their faith and many are searching.
The church no longer commands the respect of those in society. The church used to be the center of the community. Now it is relegated to something on the outside. People are coming to church because they don't believe that the church has anything to offer them. People are looking for answers, but they generally don't come to church to find the answers.
Why has this happened?
A generation ago the sanctuary would have been full. A generation ago, this altar would be lined with people praying, and not just praying for themselves, but praying for a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God.
A generation ago, the people would be crying out to God to send a mighty revival to sweep through our nation.
I believe that the words of Jesus to the church at Ephesus emphasizes these thoughts that I've having here.
4 But I have this against you: you have let go of the love you had at first. 5 So remember the high point from which you have fallen. Change your hearts and lives and do the things you did at first. If you don’t, I’m coming to you. I will move your lampstand from its place if you don’t change your hearts and lives.
Have we lost our love, have we let go of the love that we had?
Jesus said to the church there at Ephesus "change your hearts and lives and do the things you did at first."
In this Scripture passage we see Joshua as an old man, he's over 100 years old. He realizes that his time is short. He sees the restlessness and the people. And so he's come to the point of calling on the people to make a choice. And as he leads up to that great choice, he first lays out the facts.
The Facts
The Facts
It is here in this passage the Joshua lays out the facts in verses one through 13. Joshua starts with the father of Abraham and talks about Isaac and Jacob and Esau. He tells them how Jacob and his children went down to Egypt. He reminds them of how Moses and Aaron went to the Pharaoh and God sent plagues upon the people of Egypt. He reminds them that God brought them out of the land of Egypt.
He reminds them of how God protected them from the Egyptian army. He reminds them that they had wandered in the wilderness for a long time. He reminds them that God had brought them to the shores of the Jordan River.
Joshua reminds them of the battle of Jericho, and the other people that they fought against and how God delivered them.God reminded them of their fight against Jericho. He reminded them of their fight against the other nations. He reminded them that God had delivered those people into their hands.
And then Joshua gives the word of the Lord there in verse 13:
13 I gave you land on which you hadn’t toiled and cities that you hadn’t built. You settled in them and are enjoying produce from vineyards and olive groves that you didn’t plant.
It is here that God reminds them that it is he who has done all of this for them. They didn't do it God did it for them.
At as I thought about that, I thought about our salvation. God has done everything necessary for our salvation. There is not one thing that we need to do other than to receive that free gift. God has done it all for us.
Why? He's done it all for us because he loves us and wants to live in a relationship with us.
All of this reminding of what God is done is the lead up to a choice. As I said earlier, we face choices every day. Some of the choices that we make our consequential, some of the choices that we make are relatively insignificant.
The choice that Joshua is presenting to the people is a choice really of life or death.
I can almost picture the scene in my mind. Joshua was a 110-year-old. He's battle hardened. He's one of the two spies that went into the land of promise and came back with a glowing report of that what they saw is exactly what God described. He was one of the two that encourage the people to believe God. After Moses died, Joshua became the leader of this people. He had witnessed their rebellion, he watched as a whole generation of Israelites died in the desert because of their lack of belief in God.
And here is at the very end of his life. This 110-year-old man musters up all the courage that he can. He musters up all the strength in his voice and he tells the people this:
14 “So now, revere the Lord. Serve him honestly and faithfully. Put aside the gods that your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates and in Egypt and serve the Lord. 15 But if it seems wrong in your opinion to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Choose the gods whom your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live. But my family and I will serve the Lord.”
This choice that Joshua calls the people to is a choice that each one of us has to individually make. After recounting their history and all that God is done for them. Joshua boils it all down to this.
He tells them to revere the Lord. He tells them to serve him honestly and faithfully.
He tells them to put the gods of their ancestors behind them.
And then he gives them this choice.
Choose the gods of your ancestors or choose God.
That's it. There is no other choice. And Joshua says, "my family and I serve the Lord."
This call for a decision by Joshua was a call to end all of their struggling, the end of putting other things before God and making God the Lord of their lives.
It has always amazed me at how often the people of Israel dove headfirst into idolatry. I have often thought they had been the witnesses of some of the mightiest acts of God, and yet they constantly turned their backs on God.
As I thought about that I realized how often American Christianity has done the exact same things.
We place our stuff above God.
We place our money above God.
We place our jobs above God.
We place our own wants and desires above God.
We do all of that. But then we come to church on Sunday and we sing worship songs, maybe give a tip to God, hear a sermon, and go away unchanged unmoved in our relationship with God.
Are we any different than the Israelites?
I see it in the church. I witnessed it in my own life. That things and stuff become idols to us. And sadly, the world sees that as well in the lives of people in the church. In the people in the world see little reason why they would want what we profess to have.
I ask you this morning have you made that choice? Who are you going to serve? The words that Joshua spoke so many, many years ago are words that each of us need to hear today. Choose today who you're going to serve. I like Joshua say, but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.
Have you made that choice? Are you firm in that choice?
Have you made that choice? Are you firm in that choice?
Many years later, Elijah, and that grand challenge on Mount caramel. He gave a very similar challenge to the people of Israel on that day. He said these words:
21 Elijah approached all the people and said, “How long will you hobble back and forth between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow God. If Baal is God, follow Baal.” The people gave no answer.
You see what he saying there the people could make a choice. He asked that question. How long will you hobble back-and-forth between two opinions? The choices are clear. Choose God or choose Baal.
Sadly, the author writes that the people gave no answer.
Peter himself on the day of Pentecost boldly proclaimed that the one who had been prophesied about in the Old Testament was indeed Jesus. He told the people that were gathered that this Jesus who was crucified and buried rose from the dead. He tells the people this:
36 “Therefore, let all Israel know beyond question that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
The people were so moved by the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives that they asked Peter what they should do. And Peter tells them they are in verse 38
38 Peter replied, “Change your hearts and lives. Each of you must be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Joshua might've been an old man, but he sure knew his history. There in our Scripture text he recited their history. What moves me about his recitation of their history was what God was saying. He doesn't just recite their history, but he says this is what the Lord, the God of Israel says. And God says:
I took
I led
I added
I gave
I sent
I plagued
I brought you out.
I brought your ancestors out.
I did
I brought you into
I gave them.
I wipe them out.
I rescued you.
I sent the hornet.
I gave you land on which you hadn't toiled in cities that you hadn't built. You settled in them and are enjoying produce from vineyards and olive groves that you didn't plant
God did it all.
God has done it all for us.
Jesus died on the cross for us.
Jesus lay dead in that tomb for us.
Jesus was raised from the dead for us.
Jesus has ascended to God the Father for us.
Jesus is interceding on our behalf to the Father right now for us.
Jesus is coming again for us.Our God is a God of action. One author put it this way:
So the choice is ours. Is Jesus going to be the Lord of our life are not?
Our God is a God of action. One author put it this way:
He went to the very cross bearing our sins in His body, was buried in a borrowed tomb, and rose victorious from the grave. This is the God who, having promised His Holy Spirit, ascended into heaven and now has come into our lives in all the fullness of His spiritual power. This is the God who has built His church and is coming back in the form of His Son Jesus Christ to bring all human history to a point of final cataclysmic culmination in which the power of Satan will be destroyed, and Jesus Christ will reign for eternity.
Joshua gets very specific there in verse 15. He's essentially saying "For God’s sake and for your sake make a decision."
I would offer to you five ingredients that are required. If you are going to make a firm decision for Jesus Christ.
1 – you must be willing to quit straddling the fence.
Fence straddlers think that they had the best of both worlds. In reality they don't. That there is nothing wrong with making an intellectual decision about following Christ. The problem is that you can't sit on the fence with one leg in the Christian world and the other in this world.
This is a challenge because it's a call for lifestyle change. A change that's brought on by repentance for send. And change is tough, repentance hurts. All of those fence straddling habits have to be broken. What that accomplishes is setting that person free to serve the Lord who paid the penalty for their sin.
2 - a person must be willing to exert influence on others instead of being pushed around by them.
It is oh so easy just to give into our culture and to just go with the flow.
Adjusting to the culture is not harmful as long as we do not adjust ourselves to pagan thinking. There are absolutes that God has revealed about himself. When the children of Israel crossed over the Jordan River into the promised land. They picked up some of the religious ideas and they mingled them with what God said. The result was spiritual trouble for them.
Joshua wasn't going to be pushed around. He told them. Do what you want to do. But as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.3
3 - the third ingredient is that a decision for Christ must not be made lightly.
The decision to make Jesus Lord of your life is not a decision that's to be made lightly. It is a decision that will change your eternal destiny. It is a decision that will totally reorient your life.
4- the fourth ingredient is that you must be willing to go public with your faith.
The decision to follow Jesus is not just a private decision. It is a call to a public statement that Jesus is Lord.
Jesus had some words to say about that:
8 “I tell you, whoever publicly acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man will also acknowledge before the angels of God. 9 But whoever disowns me before others will be disowned before the angels of God.
That's a pretty bold statement. Jesus is saying that our faith should be right out there in front of us.
I urge you this morning. Don't decide to follow Jesus if you're not willing to identify yourself as a disciple of Jesus Christ in your home, at your place of employment, in your social life, wherever you're at. If you're not willing to publicly identify yourself as it disciple of Jesus Christ than stop calling yourself a Christian.
I'm not saying that we are going to live perfect lives, where we never make mistakes and everything is sunshine and roses. That's not reality. Jesus himself face problems in life, and yet each day. He followed the will of God. Were not going to live perfect lives, and that's why we need a Savior. We need a Savior who we will live out for publicly each day of our life.
5 - the fifth ingredient is this: you must be willing to follow through with everything that you've got.
One of the most tragic characters in the Old Testament is that of King Saul. God had selected him to be the king. He'd been anointed, placed into that leadership role. He had all the right qualifications and he started off right, but then something happened. His pride, his pride became a problem. By the end of his life, Saul was living in depression. I believe that depression is a direct result of the choices that he made to not be obedient to God.
I urge you this morning to give your all to Jesus Christ. I urge you to follow Jesus with everything that you've got. I urge you to allow Jesus to have Lordship over every aspect of your being.
There is a whole host of reasons why someone may not make a clear cut decision for Jesus Christ.
One reason is fear. All kinds of fears can get in the way of the person receiving Jesus as their Lord and Savior. They might fear that they'll become a Jesus freak.They may fear the emotionalism of the moment. Yet it is interesting that those who are afraid of emotion in the church are some of the same people that act like children at football games or basketball games. They may scream and holler during a sporting event so that they become horse, but yet on a Sunday morning they're scared to death of emotion.
Emotion is a part of who we are. It's a God-given thing. When we come to Christ. We don't need to be afraid of emotion.
Another reason for fear is that it might be too complicated. It's not complicated. One of the exciting things about being a Christian is that we grow each day learning more about God.
Another reason someone might have for not making a decision for Christ is that it's not a good time for them. They might say, will someday, someday, I'll make a decision about Jesus. But you know what? There's never a better time than right now.
I urge you, if you haven't made a decision for Jesus Christ to make that decision this morning, don't put it off any longer. The Holy Spirit speaking to you this morning, listen to them. Make that decision, make it in your own quiet way.I urge you, if you haven't made a decision for Jesus Christ to make that decision this morning, don't put it off any longer. The Holy Spirit speaking to you this morning, listen to them. Make that decision, make it in your own quiet way.
You can't straddle the fence. Jesus in his letter to the church at Laodicea described the church as people who were neither hot or cold. Jesus wished that they were hot or cold, and not lukewarm.
Jesus said to that church that he wanted to vomit them out because they were neither hot or cold. Remember the story of Lot and his wife? As they fled from Sodom and Gomorrah, leaving behind all of that wickedness. She stopped, dead in her tracks and looked back. And in that looking back, she was turned into a pillar of salt. What a tragic picture that paints for us of the indecision in her life. In that moment she stands frozen between this world and God and not having the best of either.
What about you? Are you ready to make that decision for Jesus Christ? Are you ready to recommit your life to Christ? Has your love of Christ grown cold? Are you ready to make him the Lord of your life?