Ichoose To Submit Series

iChoose

Pt. 2 – I Choose To Submit

I. Introduction

How many choices have you made this week? How many did you make this morning? Let me show you one of the choices those of us over the age 30 will remember. Remember this? A small box of crayons? Then out of nowhere our choices exploded and we were faced with the mammoth task of choosing from the large box of crayons! Technological advancement!

If you visited a grocery store this week you were faced with countless choices. I love cereal. Are there any other cereal lovers in the house? I could probably eat a whole box in one sitting if I am not careful. I went to the grocery store this week to find out how many options we have. Can you believe that now you don’t just have Captain Crunch and Cheerios? You have 125 different choices in the cereal aisles. You used to just have white bread . . . thick or thin. Now you have 35 types of sandwich bread. Wheat, rye, multi-grain, honey wheat, or double fiber.

You have to choose to choose.

In many ways he was the cultural icon of the 1960’s. His lyrics were laced with edgy social commentary, religious themes, and philosophical themes. He was included in the 100 most influential people of the 20th Century by Time Magazine. He was hailed as the #2 recording artist of all time by Rolling Stone. He has even been nominated several times for the Nobel Prize. And when his most recent album was released in 2006 he became the oldest person to ever hold the #1 spot on the Billboard Charts. In 1979, he released a song that speaks to our subject today. Take a listen to Bob Dylan for just a second.

"Gotta Serve Somebody"

You may be an ambassador to England or France,

You may like to gamble, you might like to dance,

You may be the heavyweight champion of the world,

You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed

You’re gonna have to serve somebody,

Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.

You might be a rock ’n’ roll addict prancing on the stage,

You might have drugs at your command, women in a cage,

You may be a business man or some high degree thief,

They may call you Doctor or they may call you Chief

You may be a preacher with your spiritual pride,

You may be a city councilman taking bribes on the side,

You may be workin’ in a barbershop, you may know how to cut hair,

You may be somebody’s mistress, may be somebody’s heir

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed

You’re gonna have to serve somebody,

Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.

What Dylan understood is that at some point in our lives we have to choose to whom and to what we will serve or submit. It doesn’t matter how powerful you may be or what position you may hold the choice of who to serve must be made. Dylan’s proclamation in the 1970’s wasn’t really a new proclamation. Although he probably didn’t pick up a guitar and sing an earlier version of this anthem, Joshua, who probably – and it wouldn’t have taken much – had a better voice, bluntly challenged the Children of Israel to choose who they were going to serve. The Israelites stood on the prepacise of their inheritance and their promised destiny. With one final push they will have graduated from slaves to land owners and from homeless to the homeland. But Joshua understood that they could not possess their inheritance and the promise/destiny of God without making a choice. Hear his challenge to choose.

Joshua 24:14-15

14Now therefore fear Jehovah, and serve him in sincerity and in truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River, and in Egypt; and serve ye Jehovah. 15And if it seem evil unto you to serve Jehovah, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve Jehovah.

He forced them to make a decision. Joshua, in that bold call to decide, teaches us that our willingness or unwillingness to submit is the deciding factor in determining if we will ever walk into our destiny or purpose. We can have promise after promise and prophecy after prophecy given to us, but if we refuse to submit those words and plans can be forfeited forever.