Choices

SUNDAY MORNING, MAY 28

Title: You Will Be What You Choose to Be

Text: “Choose you this day whom ye will serve” ().

Scripture Reading:

“Jesus Calls Us,” Alexander

“Our Best,” Kirk

Offertory Prayer: Our Father, we know that where there is no vision, the people perish. Likewise, where there is no Savior, the people are lost both in this world and in the world to come. We bring our offerings that the message of Christ can be preached. Here in our own church this money will be used to carry on your work. Some of this money will be sent to various places to carry the name of Jesus to those who need to know him. May we give sacrificially and cheerfully. Most of all, may we give with a prayer in our hearts that our money will be used wisely and efficiently in proclaiming the good tidings of redemption to those who have never surrendered to the lordship of Christ. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Introduction

At the close of an illustrious career, Joshua gathered the people together to bring them a final message. He stressed the providential hand of God in the nation’s history. How good God had been! Under Moses he had led them from the house of bondage to the edge of the Promised Land. During Joshua’s days of leadership, the Israelites had entered Canaan and had defeated the enemy. Israel was now in the land God intended for them to possess. Joshua realized, however, that the people faced many choices. Moses had warned them that they should not become self-satisfied and complacent once they had taken over the cities of the pagan tribes. He insisted that they thoroughly exterminate the enemy and have nothing to do with pagan religions. Joshua echoed many of the warnings that Moses had given. God had blessed the nation, and the people were to remain true to him.

I. Goals are important.

A commencement speaker once said to a group of students, “Be careful what you set as your goal in life. Whatever you make up your mind to be, you probably will become. Therefore, be sure it is a worthy goal.” No person ever drifted into success. One must plan for it, and part of that planning is the setting of goals. Your key for personal success is in establishing some long-range aims in life. Nothing is lost on people who are always bent on moving forward. They never waste time because they are always preparing for their work and their lives by keeping their eyes, minds, and hearts open to experiences that will enrich them personally and bring them nearer completion of their dreams. Persons such as this find that everything ministers to their education and that all things cooperate with them in their passion for growth.

There is a difference between one’s goal in life and one’s purpose for living. Purpose is long range. It is like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. You never quite reach it. It is always ahead of you. Goals, however, are clearly defined and may be attained. They are specific actions that we intend to and do carry out. Also we can measure goals and thereby judge our progress. Often they are quantitative and involve how much we intend to do and how often we intend to do it. They may be related closely to time and include how soon we plan to accomplish an objective.

II. Goals mean hard work.

There is nothing wrong with building “castles in the air.” Every accomplishment that is worthwhile once began as a dream in the heart of the one who brought it to reality. A guide was showing a group through a large university where there were statues of Socrates, Aristotle, and Plato. To the side was a dreamy-eyed boy who represented Alexander the Great. When a member of the party said the artist’s conception of Alexander the Great was false, the guide replied, “No, the artist was exactly correct. He who conquers a world must first of all dream that he has done so.”

But to make these dreams come true requires work—hard work. Moreover, it requires patience. Someone asked Mr. William Pitt, “What is the chief characteristic necessary to be prime minister of England?” He replied, “Patience.” The speaker said, “What is the second requirement?” He replied, “Patience.” The speaker continued, “What is the third?” Mr. Pitt replied, “Patience.” Too many people fail to realize their goals because they have not learned both “to labor and to wait.”

The apostle Paul kept his life goal constantly before him. He knew that he had not yet attained to the fullest that which Christ had for him when he confronted him on the Damascus road and changed the direction of his life.

Paul was, however, constantly seeking to know more of Christ’s will for his life. His statement, “This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (), was the secret of his Christian growth. To continue day by day striving toward a goal is hard work, but it is the only way goals can be reached. Thomas Edison once said:

One must fix his mind . . . with persistence and begin searching for that which he seeks, making use of all the accumulated knowledge of the subject which he has or can acquire from others. He must keep on searching no matter how many times he may meet with disappointment. He must refuse to be influenced by the fact that somebody else may have tried the same idea without success. He must keep himself sold on the idea that the solution of his problem exists somewhere and that he will find it.

Someone has wisely said that the trouble with most people is that they “quit before they start.”

III. Most important, choose Jesus.

Whatever you are seeking to be in life, first of all evaluate it under the searchlight of Jesus Christ. Even goals that seem mainly secular and nonspiritually oriented must be in harmony with the will of God in Christ or they are futile and may even be dangerous. Look at each of your goals and ask yourself, “Is this goal pleasing to Jesus Christ?”

If you have not yet made the choice of Jesus Christ as Savior, settle that matter before you choose any career goals. When you receive Jesus as Savior and Lord, you will automatically reevaluate all your other goals. Some of them may be worthwhile but need the refining touch of the Master’s hand.

When Jesus comes into your heart, you will receive not only personal salvation but also a new power for achieving your aims. Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (). Someone has translated this, “In him who pours power into me, I am able for anything.” One distinguished preacher said, “Every human soul has a complete and perfect plan cherished for it in the heart of God—a divine biography marked out, which it enters into life to live.” Such an attitude toward life gives it a sacred dignity and importance. Someone else said, “I would rather be what God chose to make me than the most glorious creature that I could think of; for to have been thought about, born in God’s thought, and then made by God, is the dearest, grandest, and most precious thing in all thinking.”

Conclusion

You are standing today at a crossroads in your life. What you will or will not be is determined largely by the choices you make. You may not be able to achieve everything that you think, at this moment, you wish for your life. With God’s help, however, you can properly evaluate those things that are important. The words of Joshua come echoing down the corridors of the centuries. They are as true today as they were when he spoke them to ancient Israel. Let God have his way in your life, and you will become all that he wants you to be. Pray, “Lord, help me to make your will my will in order that my will may be your will.”