As we celebrated our anniversary yesterday it was brought home to me again that love is a choice.  You do not fall in love and you do not fall out of love.  Love is a choice.  We make choices every day.  Some of them are good choices and some of them are not.

Look at the well worn exhortation in Joshua 24:15, “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

We must be like Joshua and make up our mind ahead of time how we are going to choose.  Our decisions need to be based upon the Word of God.  We must decide ahead of time to serve God.  If we do not then we will not.

I. It is a pointed decision.  Notice he says, “choose you”.  As much as I would like to make choices for other people, I cannot.  It is possible that I might make the wrong choice for them just like I have made multitudes of wrong choices for me.  To live for God or to serve God is a personal decision.

II. It is a pressing decision.  Notice again he says, “this day”.  It is not a decision that can be postponed.  We must make the decision now, or sooner.  We need to make our mind ahead of time that we will serve God no matter what.  Then we need to stick to this decision.

III. It is a parting decision.  Notice he says, “whom ye will serve;”.  We have a choice of who we will serve.  If we choose not to serve God we will find ourselves living a life without purpose.  We will be unfulfilled.  Oh, we can fill our lives with “stuff” and whatever; but, we will not be truly happy until we are wholeheartedly serving God.  This means that we have to part with things that are against Christ.  We need to the the best and not settle for good.  We have choices of good, better or best.  We must choose best everytime.

IV. It is a perpetual decision.  Notice he says “or”.  They were told that they would be tempted to serve the false gods that snared their fathers and they would be tempted to serve the gods of the land that they lived in.  They would have to daily and even moment by moment choose to serve God.  It is no different for you and I today.  We must choose each moment to serve God.  It is a daily, moment by moment  choice.  We need to do as the songwriter penned, “I Have Decided To Follow Jesus’.

V. It is a personal decision.  Notice he says, “but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”  This man had made up his mind ahead of time and I believe that his family was just as committed as he was.  Not only was this personal decision Joshua’s; but, it was his whole family’s decision.  This is what we need today are whole families that will commit to serve God not matter what.  It is going to take men, women, boys and girls that will stand up like Joshua and his family and make the necessary decision to serve God no matter what.

So, how are you doing?