INTRODUCTION:
Last week we talked about developing the attitude of steadfastness.
We learned about the distinction between faithfulness and steadfastness.
While faithfulness means being reliable, being trustworthy or devoted to the cause of Christ.
Steadfastness on the other hand means the ability to be fixed in one direction, to be steadily directed and to have an unwavering faith on God in the midst of great trouble and difficulty we are facing.
Faithfulness is finishing the race under normal circumstances.
Steadfastness on the other hand is finishing the race under very difficult circumstances.
And so, last week, we talked about three important things on how to be steadfast in the work of the Lord.
By being strong and not turning aside to the left or to the right.
By not serving the idols and not bowing down to them and
By holding fast to the Lord our God.
My prayer is that we will always be steadfast, immovable and always abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that in the Lord, our labor is not in vain.
Today, we will talk about the simple choices that we make each day that will determine our ultimate destiny.
You see, every single day, we make choices on what we will do with our time, on what we will put in our mind, on what we will do with our money, on the people we will meet or talk to and many other things concerning life.
Each time we make those simple to complicated choices, without knowing it, we make another step toward fulfilling our destiny.
Each time that we make those choices in life, our Christian growth is affected.
It is either to help us mature in the faith or to erode the very foundation of our beliefs.
Hence, the choices we make in life are very important for our destiny.
The word choices means the power to select, the power to take alternative action, the ability to make the decision or distinction or to choose your favorite course of action.
God has given us the free will to think and choose accordingly.
We are not robots, and so, He gives us the freedom to choose our destiny.
However, because of our sinful nature, we always have the tendency to make wrong choices in life.
Because we based our choices on what is convenient for us, on what is pleasing to our eyes, on the options that will give us great pleasure and what will make us popular before the world.
And many times, those choices we make are not in accordance to God's word and therefore, we suffer the consequences of our actions.
But if we have the truth of God's Word in our hearts, we have the tendency to make the right choices and avoid a downward trend.
We must therefore learn how to make the right choices in life that will help our destiny to be brighter and more successful.
We are now in the last chapter of the Book of Joshua.
It took us several months to finish this beautiful Book.
Next week, we will start a new series on the Book of Judges as we continue to study the ongoing experiences of the Israelites particularly in the Promised Land.
Here in this last chapter of the book of Joshua, we find all the tribes of Israel being assembled at Shechem.
As I said last week, Joshua was old in years and about to die and so, he reminded them about the history of their ancestors.
He started with the call of Abraham whom God took from worshiping idols to become the father of many nations.
From Abraham came his son Isaac, then from Isaac came Jacob and Esau.
Then, eventually, Jacob became Israel who had twelves sons one of whom was Joseph who became the second man in command of all Egypt.
Eventually, he took Israel to Egypt during the great famine in the land.
There they stayed for many years until God called Moses to deliver them from the hands of Pharaoh.
With a mighty hand, God brought them out of Egypt and divided the Red Sea so that they could cross drowning all the armies of Pharaohs.
Then, they lived in the wilderness for a long time until they learned their lessons and began to conquer the Amorites in order to possess the Promised Land.
Finally they crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho where numerous battles occurred and in all these things, God gave them victory.
In short, God gave them productive land did not not toil, cities they did not build and vineyards they did not plant.
These are all part of God's blessings upon Israel when they made the right choice to obey God.
Now, Joshua warned them that in his absence, they will be responsible to choose their own destiny.
These blessings that they have received can be taken away from them if they make the wrong choices in life.
If they want to continue to receive these blessings, they would have to serve the Lord faithfully and steadfastly.
But in order serve the Lord, they would have to throw away the idols that their ancestors worshiped when they were in Egypt.
And with that, Joshua declared firmly before them: "But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.?
And he asked them: "You have to make a choice! Whom do you choose?"
The people did not hesitate but in unison agreed with Joshua: "We too will choose to serve the Lord because He is our God."
Joshua warned them to be careful with their words because God is holy and He is a jealous God.
He requires utmost commitment from His people if they choose to follow God.
If they forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, God's anger will turn against them and bring disaster on them even after He has done them good.
Again, the people reiterated their desire to serve the Lord and to obey Him.
And so, in order to seal this promise of service to God, Joshua made a covenant for the people at Shechem.
He reaffirmed the decrees and the laws of God and took a large stone and set it up under the oak near the holy place of the Lord for all the people to see.
He told them that this stone is a witness against all Israel.
It has heard all the words the Lord has told them.
It has heard all the promises the people made to God.
It will be a witness against Israel if they are untrue to their God.
When all these things had been accomplished, Joshua died at the age of one hundred ten and they buried him in the hill country of Ephraim.
As we close this Book of Joshua, we will talk about three important things to remember with regards to the choices we make each day.
First, we must make the right choice.
Secondly, we must prepare for the consequences if we make the wrong choice.
Thirdly, we must make a commitment to follow through on the right choices we make.
OUR CHOICES WILL DETERMINE OUR DESTINY
1. WE MUST MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICE.
Joshua 24: 14 “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
In these verses, Joshua gave them two options to choose from.
First, they could choose to serve the Lord faithfully with fear in their hearts.
Or, secondly, they could choose to serve the idols whom their ancestors served when they were not yet in the Promised Land.
If they choose to serve the Lord, they should throw away the idols of their ancestors and serve God only.
Then, he said that this is the right thing to do because this is the choice he personally made.
"But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord."
It was a commitment to do the right thing.
You see, in our lives, we are always faced with two options.
Either to serve God or to serve our idols.
We cannot serve both. There is no middle ground. We had to make the choice.
Matthew 6:24 " "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."
The choice is between serving God or serving our idols.
And what are our idols? Idols are those that can replace God in our hearts such as fame, money, sex, career and many more.
When we choose those idols above God, we make the wrong choice and we grieve the Holy Spirit.
But when we choose to serve God, we make the right choice and God is happy.
But many times, we do not know that this is the right thing to do because we are blinded by sin.
Sin is what separates us from God's purposes in our lives.
The more we sin, the more we make the wrong choice and the more we have difficulty understanding what is right from wrong.
That is why we need to read regularly God's Word, pray and seek the help of the Holy Spirit in our lives so that our choices in life are always right.
We had to make the right choice in the way we use our time.
We had to make the right choice in the way we use our talents.
We had to make the right choice in the way we use our finances.
We had to make the right choice as to who will be number one in our hearts.
The more we gain wisdom from His Word, the easier for us to make the right choice each day.
And once our foundation is firmly established on God's moral character, we can develop a regular pattern of righteous living.
Our path will be well lighted and our testimony will be stronger.
Hence, the choices we make in life will determine our destiny.
So, how can we make sure that we choose the right thing?
a. WHEN WE LISTEN TO THE VOICE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT GUIDING US.
Isaiah 30:21 (NIV) " 21 Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”
That means when we hear His voice, we had to pay attention or tune in to what He is speaking to us.
Many times, we cannot hear Him speak because there are a lot of things in our minds.
And so, we need to eliminate those obstacles or hindrances and we must listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit.
b. WHEN WE ALLOW THE LORD TO ESTABLISH OUR STEPS.
Proverbs 16:9 (NIV) " In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps."
The word establish means to allow God to organize or set-up the plans for our lives.
Every single step that we take should build a stronger step to godliness.
It is like putting one foundation stone to another until ultimately, the entire structure is so strong it can stand the test of time.
c. WHEN WE ESTABLISH A GODLY THOUGHT PATTERN.
Philippians 4:8 (NIV) " 8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
Another way to make sure we make the right choice is with regards to our thought patterns.
It is what you think regularly that will determine your direction in life.
We had to think only of good, lovely and praiseworthy things in life.
Ultimately, after we have chosen what is right, it does not matter if we are the only one walking in it.
It does not matter if the majority are not in our side.
It does not matter if there are people who tried to criticize us or laugh at us.
What matters most is that we have chosen the path that God wants us to take even though the gate is narrow and the path is hard.
Matthew 7:13 (NIV) " “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.
During World War II, Winston Churchill was forced to make a painful choice.
The British secret service had broken the Nazi code and informed Churchill that the Germans were going to bomb Coventry.
He had two alternatives: (1) evacuate the citizens and save hundreds of lives at the expense of indicating to the Germans that the code was broken; or (2) take no action, which would kill hundreds but keep the information flowing and possibly save many more lives.
Churchill had to choose and followed the second course.
Sometimes, the consequences of our choice can be devastating but if it will be for the future good, we had to make a decision.
Klyne Snodgrass, Between Two Truths - Living with Biblical Tensions, 1990, Zondervan Publishing House, p. 179.
First, we learned that we had to make the right choice.
2. WE MUST PREPARE FOR THE CONSEQUENCES IF WE MAKE THE WRONG CHOICE.
Joshua 24: 19 Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. 20 If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.”
The second thing we need to remember is that there is a tendency for us to make a wrong choice in life.
And once, we make the wrong choice, we always have to face the consequences of our choices.
Here in this verse, we find Joshua warning Israel that if they made the wrong choice and decided not to serve the Lord, the Lord will get angry.
In fact, God considers it a rebellion and sin to forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods.
God will have no choice but to turn against them and to bring the disaster upon them.
They will be defeated in battles and they will die without claiming their inheritance.
The consequences for making the wrong choice in life is like opening yourself to a great calamity.
You are free to choose but you are not free to alter the consequences of your decisions.
We don't want that to happen, but that is true and that is what God says in His Word.
Here are some examples of people from the Bible who made a wrong choice and suffer the consequences of their choices.
1. ADAM and EVE.
Genesis 3:6 6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
They disobeyed the Word of God and made the wrong choice.
They were told explicitly by God not to eat the fruit in the middle of the garden, but they listened to the voice of the devil and doubted God's Word.
Because of that, they were cast off from the Garden.
Their entire descendants or their case, the entire humanity including us suffered the consequences of their sin.
Doubt on God's Word can make us decide on the wrong choice.
2. ABRAM,
Genesis 12:10-13 10 Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe. 11 As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are.12 When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live. 13 Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.”
Abram was overcome with fear sensing that the Egyptians might kill him if he declared that Sarah who was very beautiful was his wife.
And so, he made a wrong choice and lied to the Egyptians.
"Say to them that you are my sister," he said.
Because of that, he brought disaster and diseases to the places he visited.
Overwhelming fear can make us choose the wrong decision.
3. LOT.
Genesis 13:10-11 10 Lot looked around and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan toward Zoarwas well watered, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) 11 So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company:
Lot made the wrong decision when he looked at the plain of the Jordan.
He was more concerned about the productivity of the land he would dwell and ignored the negative impact it would give to the moral fiber of his whole family.
And so, he separated himself from the company of his godly cousin Abram.
This was the start of the infusion of worldliness to his family from his environment.
At the end, he could barely pull his entire family from the clutches of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Shortsightedness can make us decide on the wrong choice.
4. SARAH
Genesis 16:1-3 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; 2 so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.”
Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 3 So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife."
This was a wrong decision by Sarah, Abraham's wife.
She was in a hurry to build a family of her own and no time to wait upon the Lord.
And so, she allowed her husband to lie with her Egyptian slave named Hagar.
Eventually, Ishmael was born who became the father of the Arab nations which started the ongoing hostilities between Israel and all the Muslim nations in the Middle East.
Impatience can make us decide wrongly.
5. ISRAEL.
Exodus 32:1-4
When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods[a] who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”
2 Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods,[b] Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”
Here is the worst decision that Israel had made while they were at the foot of Mount Sinai waiting for Moses to come down.
God had just given Moses the Ten Commandments and he was delayed in going down.
The people became impatient and decided to make for themselves idols made of gold and jewelries.
Not only that, they sung and dance and prostituted themselves around the golden calf.
God was so angry that he would have destroyed the entire nation if not for the intervention of Moses.
Again, Impatience and idleness can make us decide wrongly.
There are still many more examples of the consequences of a wrong decision when people disobeyed God and make their own decisions.
But I guess you know the point.
We will suffer the consequences for every bad decision we make.
Therefore, it is important for us to make the right choice.
No wonder. Joshua declared: Choose you this day whom you will serve.
Here are other consequences of a wrong decision.
Wrong decisions can end in death. Proverbs 14:12 (NIV) " There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.
Wrong decisions can lead to destruction. Galatians 6:7-8 (NIV) " 7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction;whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.
Wrong decision can lead to a cursed life. Deuteronomy 30:19 (NIV) " This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live
Illustration:
I took this from Christianity Today new reader.
A hooded man armed with a large knife was in church one day.
While the pastor was preaching, he made a wrong choice.
He suddenly leaped from his seat inside a church, rushed at the pastor and was about to stab the man of God when he suddenly froze as if gripped by an "invisible force" and fell to the ground convulsing as churchgoers quickly disarmed the assailant.
The astonishing incident was caught on camera inside the Pentecostal IPUC Bosa church in Bogota, Colombia, the Mirror UK reported.
As the knife-wielding man attacked, the video footage showed the pastor, Pedro Pablo Martin, calmly saying, "There is power in the name of Jesus," repeating this several times.
Just inches away from the pastor, the attacker then took his hood down and then appeared to lose his balance as he collapsed to the floor.
As the worshipers were disarming the assailant some were heard castigating him and repeating the words just spoken by their parish priest.
At this point, the knife-wielder began to convulse on the floor.
The church later posted the video footage of the drama on its website.
The video footage was uploaded with the caption: "Hooded man attacks a priest but he is overcome by the power of the Holy One's name."
The church said what the worshipers just witnessed was God directly intervening to stop evil from harming a man of God.
"We have a powerful God and his name is Jesus Christ. There is power in the name of Jesus," a church spokesman said.
What can we learn from this story?
I pray this will not happen here but it is clear.
The man made a wrong choice and suffered the consequences of his action.
The pastor made the right choice and was protected by the Lord.
Our choices will determine our destiny.
Brothers and sisters, let us avoid those wrong decisions by growing in spiritual maturity and learning from God's Word.
3. WE MUST MAKE A COMMITMENT TO FOLLOW-UP ON THE RIGHT CHOICE WE MAKE.
Joshua 24: 24 And the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God and obey him.”
25 On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people, and there at Shechem he reaffirmed for them decrees and laws. 26 And Joshua recorded these things in the Book of the Law of God. Then he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak near the holy place of the Lord.
27 “See!” he said to all the people. “This stone will be a witness against us. It has heard all the words the Lord has said to us. It will be a witness against you if you are untrue to your God.”
The last thing we need to remember is that every good decision we make must be followed up by a strong commitment to fulfill that decision.
This is what happened to Joshua and the people of Israel.
After hearing from the people that they have chosen to serve the Lord, Joshua wanted more than mere talk.
He wanted a confirmation of this commitment.
He wanted a covenant between God and Israel.
He showed them a large stone and they made their promise on that stone.
It will serve a lasting covenant for the future generations to see.
That stone of commitment will stand the test of time.
People can come and go but that stone will always be there.
And the next generation of people will determine whether they have broken the covenant or not.
You see, every decision that we make requires a commitment to follow-through that decision.
God does not just want mere talk and empty promises but God wants actions.
He wants us to pledge with all our hearts that we really love Him and no one must take His place in our hearts.
That is what commitment is all about.
It means a pledge, a promise to fulfill our responsibility before the Lord.
We had to make a commitment if we really love God.
We had to make a commitment if we want to serve God.
We had to make a commitment if we are on the Lord's side.
This is what the Bible says about commitment.
1. We must commit our ways to the Lord. Psalms 37:5 (NIV) " Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this:"
The word "ways" means our course of action, our character traits, our habits and our ideas.
We must surrender everything to the Lord if we want to succeed in life.
2. We must commit whatever we do to the Lord. Proverbs 16:3 (NIV) " Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans."
It means whatever we plan to accomplish or carry out in life must be yielded to God's over-all direction and control.
May the Lord bless us all in our desire to make the right choices in life.
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