Your Most Important Decision of

We make our decisions, and then our decisions have a way of making us.

Four years ago, Mike Kehoe was working as a carpenter. He had grown up on Staten Island, New York, the son of a retired New York City fireman. Mike wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps, and decided to apply to the fire department. But he had to wait seven long years on their waiting list before he could enter the training program. But finally they called, and three and a half years ago, he graduated from the academy, received his diploma from Mayor Rudolf Giuliani, and became a New York City firefighter.

That’s how, on the morning of September 11, Mike found himself running up the stairwell at the 28^(th) floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. At that very moment, a Port Authority contractor who had grabbed his digital camera off his desk on his way down the stairs from the 71^(st) floor, snapped that unforgettable picture of a red-faced Mike Kehoe running up the stairs in his helmet and black fireman’s coat.

A few moments later, the order came through to evacuate the North Tower, and Mike had to turn around and run back down. He dashed down to the lobby and ran outside just as the North Tower came down. Six of his buddies from Engine 28 never made it out.

That picture of Mike was published on the front page of the New York Daily News on Friday, Sept. 14, and his life hasn’t been the same since. He became an instant symbol of the heroism of that day. He has received countless letters and gifts from people all over the world. He is recognized everywhere he goes in New York City.

But in his own personal life, Mike has struggled to come to grips with the enormity of what happened on the most terrifying day of his life. He has battled with depression, and has felt tension from some of his fellow firefighters who resent his celebrity. Mike doesn’t see himself as a hero. When he is asked how many people he was able to save that day, he answers “I only saved one person that day, and that was me, and it was by running for my life.”

Of the picture that has made him so famous, he says “I wish it had never been taken.”

We make our decisions, and then our decisions make us. The choices that we make, even seemingly insignificant choices that we make on the spur of the moment, can leave long-term marks on our lives.

Every one of us makes countless decisions during our lifetime. Each decision we make is like a crossroads, where we have to choose one of several different pathways which lead, ultimately, to very different destinations.

Any one of these moments of decision can be a crucial turning point, although we have no way of knowing this at the time. It is only in retrospect that we realize how profoundly our choices have impacted our lives.

Two years ago, my son Pete decided to grab a quick lunch at a diner near the campus of Kutztown University, where he was taking classes towards a business degree. The diner happened to be located right next to the runway of the tiny Kutztown Airport, where private planes were taking off and landing. Intrigued, Pete found himself going back again and again to that diner, just to watch the airplanes. Pretty soon, he signed up for flying lessons. Today, he has his commercial pilot’s license, and is starting a career in aviation.

We make our decisions, and then our decisions begin to make us.

Such life-changing moments of decision usually come unannounced. They occur during the course of our daily routine, without any prior warning. They hide amid the countless little, humdrum choices we make each day. God never sends us a telegram saying “You are going to be called upon to make an important and life-changing decision next Thursday at 3:30. Please be ready.” We are seldom afforded the luxury of gathering ourselves, collecting our wits, or spending extra time in prayer as we prepare for those moments. They’re like quicksilver: they are here, and then they are gone. The decision is made, and the die has been cast.

A man absent-mindedly makes a wrong turn down a country lane, stops for directions at a farmhouse, and meets the woman who will one day become his wife. A young girl sneaks a drink from her parents’ liquor cabinet, and begins a lifelong battle with alcoholism. We make our decisions, and then our decisions make us.

The Bible records such moments in the lives of many of its leading characters. Like us, those men and women made their choices and then their choices made them. Remember Ruth, declaring clear-eyed and forthrightly to her mother-in-law “I will go where you go…” Recall Joseph, his heart-pounding, his senses filled with the allure of a beautiful woman, stammering “How could I do such a thing and sin against God?” Think of Esther, swallowing the lump of terror in her throat and declaring “If I perish, I perish.” Those moments of decision profoundly altered the course of their lives.

The year 2002 will hold such moments of decision for each of us. The question is: What will be the measure by which we will weigh those decisions? This is the only issue we can decide in advance. Will we make our choices on the basis of self-interest; by doing what happens to feel good at the moment, or seems to be best to us at the time? Or will we choose a higher standard, and try to make our decisions on the basis of what will please God?

There was a man in the OT who clearly chose the better way. His name was Joshua. He was a great leader – the successor of Moses – a military general who led Israel’s conquest of the Promised Land.

When we see him in Joshua 24, he’s an old man – well over a hundred years old. And this is the last time he will address the people – this is his last official act as the leader of Israel.

What does he tell them? Well, let’s read it…

Read Joshua 24:2-13

Notice that the divine pronoun is used no less than 18 times in this passage:

• I took

• I gave

• I assigned

• I sent

• I afflicted

• I did

• I brought you out

• I gave them into your hands

• I destroyed them

• I delivered you

• I gave you a land

The emphasis is on the activity of God. It’s not about what Abraham, or Moses, or Joshua did – it’s all about what God did. But does that mean that Abraham, and Moses, and Joshua, and the other people mentioned were irrelevant? No, they had a role to play. They were active players in this drama. They made decisions. But the decisions they made were the raw material God used to accomplish his overriding purpose.

And how this all works is a mystery. How can we have free will and yet God be sovereign? Well, let’s come back to that.

Joshua issues a challenge to the people in v. 14-15:

“Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

This is a decision that Joshua calls the people to make. In light of God’s goodness – in light of all God had done for them – what was their response going to be? Were they going to serve him? Or were they going to serve the little false gods they still seemed to be fooling around with?

It was an important choice, it was a definitive choice – it had to be either/or. It was an individual choice. It wasn’t a choice someone else could make for you. Each person had to come to his or her own decision. Joshua demonstrates this by saying: “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Whatever anyone else does, this is my choice. This is my decision.

Finally, it was an influential choice – Joshua’s decision, as a leader, would influence the lives of the others in his household. But they all had to make their own choice. It wasn’t automatic.

Now this took place around 1400 BC. Yet this decision is stil the most fundamental issue of life. It is the most critical decision you will make for the coming New Year – whatever the New Year holds. As we stand on the threshhold of the year 2002, Joshua’s voice echoes from the ancient past: “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.”

These young men who have been baptized this morning have said, in essence, “I have made my choice. I have thrown my lot in with Jesus.”

The amazing thing is that God has given us the freedom to make such a choice. Even though he has made us, and given us life, God does not force us to serve him. He has given us the freedom to reject him if that is what we want to do.

The Bible tells us that the whole universe operates according to the divine will of God. His will is paramount.

Summer and winter and springtime and harvest

Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above

Join with all nature in manifold witness

To thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Psa. 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Unlike some Eastern religions, the Bible does not present a dualistic view of god: a good force and a bad force of equal power who are locked in an eternal battle for supremacy. The Bible says that while there is indeed a personal evil force in the universe, that evil force is under the control and authority of a sovereign God who is good.

And yet in this amazing universe – so finely tuned to support life on planet earth – a universe which moves and exists according to the sustaining power of God, there is one arena allowed to exist in which God’s authority is challenged. That arena is in the heart of every individual human being. God has given each of us a will of our own – a will that He allows us to exercise against his will.

Think of it this way. On Sept. 11, a little band of fanatical men who were acting under the direction and inspiration of Osama bin Laden, attacked and destroyed the World Trade Center, and a part of the Pentagon. In a sense, you might say that, on that awful day, the will of Osama was decisively exercised against the will of the world’s greatest superpower, the United States of America.

However, in the days since Sept. 11, as America began to marshall her vast resources, Osama’s area of sovereignty was progressively reduced. He started out with global reach – he could impose his will in virtually any area of the world.

But soon his sphere of influence was reduced to a singly country – Afghanistan – and then to a limited area of that country, and then to the small region of Tora Bora, and then to a few caves in Tora Bora. Should he ever be taken captive, Osama’s area of sovereignty will further be reduced to the space within his own head.

But that last area cannot be taken away from him. He will always have a will of his own.

And it is similar in that way with us. We will always have our own will, as over against God’s. God will not take our will away from us; he will not turn us into robots or androids. That’s because he loves us, and he wants us to love him. But he will not force us to. Love is only love when it springs from a free will.

And so, the most critical choice we are called to make as human beings is to voluntarily love God and serve him. And in doing so, we are submitting our independent will to the will of God. That’s why Joshua said “Choose you this day whom you will serve.”

As was true back in Joshua’s day, there are many other so-called “gods” we can choose to serve today. The scary thing about them, though, is that once we have chosen to serve them, they have a way of enslaving us – they take away our ability to make further free choices. These false gods strip us of our will.

Take pleasure, for example. Many people in our society choose to serve the god of pleasure. They make the pursuit of pleasure the very goal of their existence—their highest ideal. And yet, in making that choice, they soon become slaves to the god of pleasure.

A man begins to use pornography because it gives him a moment of pleasure. But soon, that occasional moment becomes a habit. And the habit begins to take over his life and destroy his relationships. He is enslaved.

The road to any addiction is paved with pleasure. And, once addicted, a person no longer retains the ability to make free choices. And a human being who cannot make free choices has been reduced to the level of a slave.

But there is one choice that gives true freedom – and that is the choice to serve God.

David the Psalmist said “I will always obey your law, for ever and ever. I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts. (Psalm 119:44-45)

Jesus offers us freedom. He said “I have come to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, and to release the oppressed.” He said to his disciples “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” He said “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:29-30)

Paul said “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. (Gal. 5:1)

He said “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” (2 Cor. 3:17)

James speaks of the “law that gives freedom” (1:25; 2:12). Peter tells us to Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. (1 Pet. 2:16)

The most important choice you will make in the coming New Year is the choice you make to live for God – to serve him with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. It is a choice you need to make at the beginning of the year, but also at the beginning of every day of that year.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

We make our choices, and then our choices make us.