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Anger
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Life’s Choices
 
I.
Text: Luke 15:11-24
II.
Major Objective: Make Godly Oriented Choices in Life.
III.
Central Idea of the Text: God offers alternatives to the world’s life style choices.
IV.              Subject: God’s Process
V.                 Thesis and Goal
a.       Proposition: God has an alternative path to decision making.
b.      Specific Objective: For the Holy Spirit to convict the young people to follow God’s direction for their lives.
VI.              Introduction
First, allow me to thank you for inviting me to this the 2009 Baccalaureate Services.
This time next week many if not all of you will be receiving your High School diplomas.
In order for this the 2009 graduating class to arrive at this moment many choices had to be made.
First, you had to decide whether you would show up for class or not.
Second, you had to decide whether to study or not.
Third, you had to decide whether to do the minimum to pass or do the work to excel.
Life is full of choices.
As you prepare to leave this phase of life behind and move forward your decisions will become more numerous and more difficult.
Am I going to go to college or go into a career?
What college am I going to go into?
What is going to be the driving influence in my chosen life style?
Will I choose to stay in the church or go my own way?
Is it time for me to look to new friends and associates?
What major area of study will I focus on in college?
What career do I want to go into?
What about my social life; what will it look like?
These are just a small number of the choices that await you.
What will you base these decisions on?
There was a young man in the New Testament, which was probably about your age, he made some choices and they were not the best.
In fact, we don’t even know his name.
Yet, we do have an account from Jesus on his choices, outcomes, and eventually, and lessons learned from his experiences.
Found in the fifteenth chapter of the Gospel of Luke we have an account of a young man that believed it was time for him to take what he believed was owed him and depart.
This young man does not have a name but he does have a title, his title is the “Prodigal Son.”
Many a pastor has focused on the return of the “Prodigal Son.”  Tonight I would like to take a few moments and look at this young man’s decision making and apply it to us on this momentous occasion of the baccalaureate of the Class of 2009.
VII.
Choices driven by things in your life
Turn with me to Luke 15:11-24.
/He also said: “A man had two sons.
//The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate I have coming to me.’
So he distributed the assets to them.
//Not many days later, the younger son gathered together all he had and traveled to a distant country, where he squandered his estate in foolish living.
//After he had spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he had nothing.
//Then he went to work for one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs.
//He longed to eat his fill from the carob pods the pigs were eating, but no one would give him any.
//When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have more than enough food, and here I am dying of hunger!
//I’ll get up, go to my father, and say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight.
//I’m no longer worthy to be called your son.
Make me like one of your hired hands.’
//So he got up and went to his father.
But while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion.
He ran, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him.
//The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight.
I’m no longer worthy to be called your son.’ //“But the father told his slaves, ‘Quick!
Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.
//Then bring the fattened calf and slaughter it, and let’s celebrate with a feast, //because this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’
So they began to celebrate./
/ /
            There are three basic sources that drive our decision making.
They are (1) our personal abilities and desires, (2) the constraints and pressures of our society, and (3) and our faith.
a.       Choices are driven by your personal abilities and desire
First, our choices can be driven by personal abilities and desires.
We can see in verse 12 the younger son said to the father, “Father give me…I have coming to me.”
The young man desired to receive his inheritance.
The Bible doesn’t tell us why the younger son had come to this point in his life.
Yet, it can be seen the younger son wanted to leave the family and start a life of his own.
The reasoning for this move, sadly to say, was based on his personal desires and hopes to enjoy a life of personal gratification and ungodly living.
You may be asking yourself many of the questions I poised earlier.
Some of these are the result of your personal desires.
You may be thinking about law school, medical school, or even engineering school.
Some of you may be thinking of Bible College while others may be thinking of going into the military, or even going into a craft of some type.
Many times it is our personal desires driving these choices.
Finally, you may already have some skill such as music, athletics, or even construction that you wish to enhance as part of your personal journey.
Yet, there are other driving forces in the choices that lay before us.
b.      Choices are driven by the society you live in
Some times our choices are driven by the society we live in.
What was the society of the younger son like?
Our story begins with the younger son who requests his inheritance.
In reality the son was saying to the father, “Why don’t you just go and die?”
According to the Torah the younger son receives one half of the older son, meaning one third of the total estate (Deut.
21:17).
Second, considering certain maintenance expenses he probably got less than that.
The father gave the younger son what he asked for.
The younger son liquidated his assets and left for the big city.
After the younger son had spent all his wealth on hedonistic living a famine occurred in the big city.
The son hired out to a citizen and he was hired to feed the pigs.
It is not beyond the idea that the citizen purposely assigned the younger son to feed the pigs hoping this might cause him to come to his senses.
We can see from the story that the younger son exercised his rights within the family and within the society in which he lived.
Within our society there are also driving forces leading up to the choices we make.
If you choose to go to a college you will encounter people with a different perspective than yours.
College professors are known for being very liberal and persuasive.
In addition, many of you will leave home to go off to college.
You will be relying more on your own decisions than those of your parents.
If you go into other fields such as military or skilled crafts you will also encounter people of dubious backgrounds.
All these will be driving forces to effect your decisions.
But there is one other driving force for your decision making and that is your faith.
c.
Choices are driven by your faith
Our faith can be a great source in our decision making.
Our faith gives us some absolutes that can be a firm foundation in guiding the decisions we make.
The world around us believes there are no absolutes only relative choices.
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