The Choice Of A New Generation

You know, one thing we need to understand about serving God is that it’s always voluntary. You don’t have to do it. If you don’t want to, don’t do it. I think there’s a great freedom in that. The Lord never created any of us to be robots. He doesn’t want any of us to do it just because we’ve got to do it. But rather he wants us to freely choose.

I find that interesting in the gospels about Jesus. I said a moment ago Jesus never begged anybody. Do you ever in the gospels see Jesus chase anybody down? The rich young ruler, when the Lord saw something very good in him, but when he left the Lord, you don’t see Jesus going, "Oh, please come back, please, you need this, you’ve got to have this." You don’t see the Lord chase anybody.

Because the Lord understands that at the very core this is everybody’s choice. You know, I have sometimes have a hard time with that. When there’s someone I really love, someone whom I want to see go to heaven more than anything else, I have a problem with allowing it to be their choice. I wish I could force people to do what’s right, but I can’t. We can express our love and the love of God, but in the end it’s their choice. That can be a hard thing to accept.

We see it in Jesus. We see it here in Joshua. "Guys, you choose what you’re going to do. I know what I and my family are going to do. But you do whatever you want to do." You know, there’s a freedom to that. Every now and time, we need to say to ourselves, this is my choice. Do you ever get discouraged at your job? Sometimes I do. I know you find that hard to believe, working with you guys. But sometimes I get discouraged, and I get so tired of doing this. And you know what I have to do? I sit myself down and I say, "OK, Alan, you don’t have to do this. If you don’t want to, then go do something else."

If you feel like you’ve got to do something, you feel so hemmed in. So I say to myself, "If you really don’t like this, then don’t do it. Try something else." But then there’s always something within me that goes, "No! I want to do this. This is how I feel God wants me to use my talents." There’s a great exhilaration in being able to say, "This is my choice."

I want to tell you something this morning. If you’re struggling in your commitment to God, why don’t you give yourself a choice. You don’t have to be here. You don’t have to do this. If you don’t want to do it, don’t. You say, "I can’t believe Alan’s saying that!" That’s what Joshua said. He said, "I’m not forcing you into anything, it’s your choice."

But, once you do that I think you’ll realize something. I know there are times in my life when I question my commitment to the Lord. Do I really want to live this lifestyle? And when I finally say, "Well, Alan, go do something else", everything in me goes, "No, I can’t do that. I believe this. This is right. This is true. I couldn’t turn my back on Jesus for anything." There’s something healthy about giving yourself that choice.

I challenge some of you this morning if you’ve been living for a while in mediocrity, sort of half-heartedly doing this thing, give yourself a choice. Get out of it if you don’t like it. But if you do want serve the Lord, then do it. As Joshua would say, "Go for it. Throw away those foreign gods and accept only the Lord God." You’ve got to have that choice.