Choose You 3

Hello Everyone,

Reflecting on all that God has done is the only reasonable response to overwhelming waves of God’s goodness. (Joshua 24:1-13)

The same pattern is repeated in the New Testament, the goodness of God is depicted in Romans 1-11 and then Romans 12:1 calls all men to the only rational response.

         

Romans 12:1-2 ¹ I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. ² And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. KJV

Four ingredients of a true decision for God:

1. We Must Be Willing to Quit Straddling the Fence

There are far too many in the church today that is trying to keep one foot in the world and one foot in the church.

They don’t want to make a commitment that might change their status in the world.

And they don’t want to give up their sin in order to really be right with God.

So they end up sitting on the fence, not really a part of the world and not really a part of the church.

Joshua challenges us to acknowledge that it is TIME to make a decision.

Either stay in the world and live by its standards and collect its rewards, no matter how temporary. Or make a decision to follow God, wholeheartedly and without reservation.

One finally has to make a decision.

The answer for some is, “Well I want to but not now, now is not a good time.”

The truth is that for some there is never a good time.

2. A decision for Christ must not be made lightly

Joshua was, at this point, 110 years of age. He was a soldier hardened from battle. He bore the scars of long-term commitment.

His choice to follow God was not made lightly, nor was it held lightly.

In his study of Joshua, Francis Schaeffer points out that when Joshua challenged the people to choose to serve God and affirmed that this was his settled choice as well, the tense that he used implied more than just a once for all time choosing, as if he could make a choice and be done with it forever. The tense involves continuous action. That is, it involves the past, but it also involves the present and the future. It is as if Joshua had said, “I have chosen to serve the Lord; I am choosing the same path of service now; and I will go on choosing to serve God until the very end.” To Joshua serving the Lord was a daily choice. [Francis Schaeffer. Joshua and the Flow of Biblical History. (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1975) p. 208]

3. We must be willing to go public with our faith.

Jesus had something to say to those who have a private confidence in Him but we are unwilling to acknowledge Him in public. He said, “He that denies Me before men, him will I deny before My Father which is in heaven.”

Don’t say that you believe in Christ if you are not willing to identify yourself as one of his disciples, in your home, in your business, in you social life, in fact...wherever you go!

4. We must be willing to follow through with all that we have

There could be no mixing of allegiance to God with other gods.

When Joshua led the children of Israel into the Promised Land they had picked up the contemporary religious practices and had mingled them with those laid out in the Word of God.

A FIRM choice had to be made then, as well as every generation to follow.

Men must choose between expediency and principle, between this world and eternity, between God and anything that would try to take His place.

Greater Things Are Still To Come!