"Decisions, Decisions, Decisions" Series

“Decisions, Decisions, Decisions”

Joshua 24: 14-15

We have been walking with the Israelites and with Joshua as their leader now while for the past 14 weeks. And we have seen God do some powerful things as he has used this man named Joshua. Before the death of Moses God put his hand on Joshua to become the next leader of the Israelites. So Moses then appointed him as his successor.

• We have watched as Joshua stood before a raging river in flood stage and placed his feet into the water. God honored his faith and the waters walled up Joshua led the Israelites to safety.

• We watched as the Israelites marched around the walls of Jericho for six days; on the Sabbath day seven priests marched around the city seven times on the seventh time they blew the trumpets in the walls fell down and they captured the city.

• We watched as Joshua prayed what may be the most powerful prayer ever prayed as he asked for the sun and the moon to standstill; to basically stopped time long enough for him to win and finish the battle. Then God spoke to Joshua and he said Joshua, your very old-and when God tells you you’re old... Well, you’re old. And he told him there were still some very large areas of land to be taken over. So the land of Canaan was divided into the 12 tribes of Israel. That covers nearly 13 chapters of the book.

Today we come to the end of this great book. In chapter 23 Joshua was summons all the leaders together in says I am old and well advanced in years and he reminds them that God would lead them, that God would keep his promise to them and that they would live forever in the land he had promised to them. Then in chapter 24 Joshua gives them these final words of advice. Verses 14-15.

Let me ask you a question this morning... How do you go about making the major decisions of life? Life is full of so many choices. How do you go about making those decisions? What is the process for you?

I’m not a big country music fan but I do think that country music has the best song titles anywhere... Here are a few:

• May the bird of paradise fly up your nose

• thank God and Greyhound she’s gone

• I got the hungries for your love and I’m waiting in your welfare line

• if love was oil, I’d be a quart low

• she done tore my heart and stomped that sucker flat

George Jones was an icon in country music... Just before his death in 1999 he wrote a song called choices-the mainline the song says I’m living and dying with the choices I made. And we do. We live and die with the major choices we make in life. These are some of the major choices in my opinion that we make in life.

1. What kind of work will I do? How are you going to use the gifts and talents God has given to you to help make a

difference in this world? In this church? In this community?

2. Who am I going to marry? Too many times we give two little thought to this decision and it is made through our emotions-after all were in love. This is a major decision because that person you choose will impact your life forever. In both good ways and often in bad ways. Who we choose to marry is clearly a life-changing decision.

3. Where will I live? I counted this week and realized that in our marriage of almost 40 years now we have lived in five different states, eight different cities and 13 different homes. For over 20 years now we been in the same spot but we have had more than our share of moving. During that 40 years we have served eight churches and each time we have moved there has been a major time of prayer for us. Because that move affects not only us as a couple it also affects a congregation and it also has had a large impact on our children.

What kind of work will I do? Who am I going to marry? Where will I live? All of these decisions are huge but there is one more that is obvious that matters even more. And here it is. How will I make decisions? How we make decisions will determine the course and the direction of your life how you make decisions will determine whether you will live inside or outside of God’s will.

It is no secret that our nation is in trouble. Unless you live in a closet or with your head buried in the sand, you know that we are living in a very troubled time. I was away for two weeks with our children and grandkids and didn’t take time to read a paper or even watch the news. I picked up several papers when we returned and these are just a few of the things that I saw all that have happened in recent days.