Decisions, Decisions

Passage:  Joshua 24:14-24

Title:  Decisions, Decisions

Outline:

1. Introduction about DECIDE
2. Life Decisions ought to be well thought out.
3. Life Decisions ought to include Christ.
4. Life Decisions almost flow from our DNA.
5. Conclusion:  Chose Christ.  Make Grace and Truth your Guide.  Let the decisions flow.

Sermon in Oral Style,

Congregation,

          A guy wonders, would it be better tattoo that says Mom, My Girlfriends name, or some cool Red Wings symbol. 

          To be able to think through, even the idea that Mom is kind of the corny biker thing to do, the girlfriend might change, but Red Wings will always be awesome making it the obvious choice for a tattoo.  I’m just joking.  But to be able to think through and decide is something created only in human beings. 

I am no biologist and I have no research to verify this statement, but… there is no other being on the face of the earth that can make decisions based on possible outcomes.  I can’t think of any other creature, can you?  Apes, monkeys, dolphins, the most “intelligent” animals on the face of the planet don’t do long range decision making.  Humans are the only creatures that can sit down and analyze.  We are the only part of God’s creation that can think through possible outcomes.  Might it be part of what God means when he says he is going to create humankind in his image? 

          Funny thing, then isn’t it that, the way we make decisions most often is by a simple gut reaction. 

          First observation, if you’ve ever been taught decision-making strategies, they are usually so complex that they could never work in every day decisions. 

When I was in health class in high school there was a section on how to make better decisions.  They said you have to use the DECIDE method.  Each letter of the word DECIDE tells you the process. 

D- Define the problem.

E- Examine the possible solutions

C- Choose the desired outcome.

I- Identify the solution that would lead to the desired outcome

D- Do the action required

E- Evaluate the effect of the action.

          This might work if you are working with a problem solving team trying to strategies new ways to grow a business.  But daily decisions.  Forget it.

          Alarm goes off.  Decision time.  Define the problem.  The alarm.  Examine solutions.  Get up, or hit snooze.  Choose outcome- I want to succeed in life.  Identify the solution that will get me there:  get up.  Now do it.  Get up. Evaluate.  Okay, getting up did the trick.

          Now its time to decide what to wear.  Problem:  I don’t want to wear PJ’s to school.  Possible solutions: -forget it.

          That tactic doesn’t work for every day decisions.

          A second observation is that a method like DECIDE won’t be reliable in the big temptations of your life. 

My teachers tried very hard to explain that the DECIDE method was something we ought to do when some offers us drugs, or invites us to a party that would probably put us in compromising situations, or deciding whether study time with your boyfriend in his bedroom with the doors closed was a good idea. 

If I had to guess, no one, young or old would actually sit down and go through a pattern of problem solving like DECIDE.  You’re pressuring me to have sex… hold on I need to define the problem and weigh my possible solutions.  It doesn’t work that way, does it.

          That means that something different’s got to happen.  If we really mean we want God not to let you fall into temptation, doesn’t some thing big need to happen?  Don’t you feel too that it has to take something more than knowing the way to make a good decision?  It takes more.

          That leads to my third observation.  The foundation to making the best decisions is being absorbed by God’s view of the world.  That’s that big change we need.  God’s worldview capturing us. 

When you are ready to make a decision in your life, you can’t expect a quick glance at the Bible to make a difference.  Or give you some sudden revelation of the truth.  Good decisions are made when we are absorbed in the mind of God.

          That’s the decision that Joshua is asking the people to make in our passage?  He asks them to choose again.  Which God are you going to serve?  This isn’t like asking which church building are you going worship at, God’s or Baal’s.  This a question of what are you going to fill you mind with.  What are you going to use to drive every decision you make?  Will it be God and what’s good for his kingdom or will it be the customs you learned from the other nations?

          Here it is a question to the whole nation of people.  He is asking them, a question of whose worldview are you going to adopt.  Just think about how big this question is.  It means believing that the true kingdom that ought to rule the world is God’s kingdom.  It involves letting what is right for God’s kingdom motivating the decisions that are made. 

          Joshua reminds them that God has already rescued them.  With power God sent plagues to set them free from Egypt.  With power he moved the water of the Red Sea to the sides so they could be saved again from Pharaoh.  With power he led them through the desert giving the water from stones and bread from heaven.

          Are you going to step into the world of the God who created the world?  Are you going to base your life’s decisions and work on the worldview and commands of the God who saved the whole nation in power and sustained them in the driest times?  Or do you want to do it on your own?  Or do you want to base it on the gods that are as man made as the stone idols that are supposed to represent them.  That doesn’t make much sense at all.

          It makes sense for the nation right now to say it again.  Three times the people of the nation say it.  Verse 16 is the first place where they say it.  16 Then the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods! 17 It was the Lord our God himself who brought us and our fathers up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. 18 And the Lord drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God.” [1]

          The only way they can even begin to follow the commands of God is by being his people.  By making what is taught about him and the world, by making all of that the constant frame that they live their lives in, and make their decisions in.

          People, this is why churches have church education and discipleship programs.  Faith Instruction class and catechism give answers, but they are supposed to help you  be encapsulated even more by God’s worldview.  The Heidelberg Catechism is a tool for helping you make good decisions driven by God.  Young People’s groups, its about living into the mindset of God, not just learning how to make good decisions in a social setting.  Christian education.  It is about being swallowed up in the teaching of Christ, having everything framed by Christ.

          Where does this leave us when it comes to decisions in the world.  Well, I think it leads us to answering the question from Joshua.  Choose this day who you will follow?  It’s the one decision that has the potential to give you peace with every other decision you make. 

          You may have to wrestle with decisions still and wrestle with what you believe.  But when you have to decide something when you are capture by God’s worldview, they you won’t have to depend on DECIDE steps to decision making.  You can react.  You can react not out of instinct like an animal.  Isn’t that what they do?  You can react like a person who has already decided to follow Jesus and live in the worldview that he has.

          You remember WWJD?  It’s a great idea, but remember the way Jesus knew what to do was because he had the same mindset as God the Father. He lived in that world.  He knew what to do.  What would Jesus do?  He would be in touch with the Father and let the answers flow from that. 

          IN that way, the right decision should be a part of you.  Almost a part of your DNA, a way that you think.

          Parents and teachers who are here.  This is almost more of an encouragement to you.  It’s about genetic manipulation almost.  Its about deep down change.  Don’t be content teach facts about the faith.  Form your worldview to be like Christ’s, and work to bring them into that worldview as well.  Facts and arguments might convince the mind for a while, but forming a worldview helps effect every decision.  The point is not to teach.  It is to equip our children for living in this world, but living for the kingdom of God in every decision.  Its to imbed God’s teaching deep in our very makeup of life.

          For all of us, we should make it our challenge to be wrapped up even more completely in the worldview of God.  Don’t wait until you need to make a decision and hope that you make the right one.  Is it drugs, is it sex in your relationship, is it a sudden decision in the way you are going to spend your money?  Is it a decision whether or not to share the truth of Jesus Christ with someone you know is waiting to hear the truth?  Suddenly weighing the options isn’t going to work.

          Young people, I want to challenge you to begin now trying to find ways in your life to be reflective.  Find time to read God’s word and be engulfed by the truth it teaches about God and us and the world.  Now is the time to set up the pattern in your life to be formed by the Biblical worldview and the kingdom of God.  Read your Bible, and then let the truth surround you in everything you do.  That’s the success I pray for each and every one of you.

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[1]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 . Zondervan: Grand Rapids