Who will you serve?
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. Joshua 24:15
One thing that has always seemed to puzzle mankind is the fact that God allows man freewill. Mankind gets to choose things that will have both eternal and temporal benefits and consequences. He allows us to choose whether or not to get married, have children, were to live, what career to pursue and all the other mundane life decisions. God, though all powerful and all-knowing, decided to give us free will even though He knew that it would lead to sin. But why is that? Is it some kind of divine joke that He placed us in a garden with a slick talking serpent? Does God really want to see us fail so that He can punish us? God could of, if He wanted, made us robots of flesh, one hundred percent obedient to His every command.
So why did God opt for creatures of freewill? This is the only way that our love and worship can truly have any meaning. This is the only way that we can truly become children of God. God wants more than our obedience, He wants a relationship. He has always wanted this and in order to prove our love, we have always and will always be put to the test.
Adam and Eve
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Genesis 2:16,17
As you can see, both the instructions and penalty for disobedience are clearly given.
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. Genesis 3:6
After a seed of lust grows in her, Eve eats the fruit and gives some to Adam who also eats. So starts the fall of man and the beginning of sin. This illustrates the classic dilemma of humanity, when given a choice of right and wrong, we often choose wrong.
However, this is not always the case. Freewill has given the exceptional people of faith the ability to show just how special they are. Choices we make say a lot about us. They prove who we love, honor, respect and fear. They prove what we know and believe.
Abraham
And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. 11And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. 12And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. Genesis 22:10
God instructed Abraham to sacrifice his son (Isaac) . Abraham knew that God had promised to blessed the world through the descendants of Isaac so this didn't make any sense. He trusted God. He was obedient and God blessed Him for it. God stopped Abraham before he landed the death strike and told him that it was clear that he would not let anything stand in the way of his relationship with God.
In fact, choice is a central theme of the Bible. It is the choices of Noah who obediently built an ark, David, who slew the giant Goliath with a stone, and Joshua, who conquered Jericho with the blast of a trumpet, serve to illustrate just a few people who let their decisions to obey God shape the future of Israel. Virtually every hero in scripture only became heroes because no matter what the circumstance, they decided to choose God.
It is apparent that America is dead set on turning away from God. Still, each individual person has a decision to make, do we honor God or the wishes of a corrupt nation. Prayer has been taken out of schools, laws have been passed that allows marriages between people who God will not recognize. People who spank their children as the Bible outlines are being cast as abusers. We honor the laws of man until the cross the Laws of God.
Skip to Free will of Man section 2- Is America a Christian Nation: Do I serve God or government?
How will we serve?
So then, we have come full circle to the choice at hand. In the book of Joshua chapter 24 and verse 15 we have the life altering choice that every Christian and ultimately every person will have to make, “choose you this day whom ye will serve.” I call all the other decisions in life “mundane” because in comparison with this they are. This decision has eternal consequences and must taken very seriously.
Even when a person makes the correct choice (for Jesus), their journey is just beginning. Choice for the Christian does not end at our decision for Christ, it is only the foundation for a series of other choices. What we will believe? -About God, about salvation, about the Bible? Where will we worship? What teachers will we listen to and which ones to reject?
You see, for the Christian, there are many avenues for us to turn but “only one way” to eternal life. All roads are not created equal and neither is every place of worship, teacher, Bible, and Gospel. The enemy is constantly trying to derail us and get us to spend too much time on the minor and too little on the major.
Only you in a honest soul searching can answer how far you are willing to go for Christ. How far will you go with Christ? How much time praying is enough time praying. How much Bible study is enough? How much money do you give away and how much to keep? How much effort do you put in being obedient to what you understand about His word? These are choices only you can make. These are choices only you should make. This is your eternal destiny.
In 1 Samuel 15:3 God orders Saul to utterly destroy Amalek but Saul and the people are disobedient and keep the best livestock alive. When God sends Samuel the prophet to ask Saul the reason for his disobedience, Saul says that the people saved the best animals to offer to God as a sacrifice.
And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. 1 Samuel 15:22
This is a lesson that too many Christians ignore. God is more pleased with our obedience than with our sacrifice. There are things in the Bible which instruct us how God wants to be worshiped, how He wants his church run and by whom. How His bride (the church of Christ Jesus) is suppose to look. We must choose whether or not we are going to follow the Bible or the traditions of man. I believe that the modern church is doing a lot of things that they consider to be good and important but God has not asked for or even wanted.
Skip to Freewill of Man section 3 - The true church: How should we worship?
God's will
2And 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. Romans 12:2
Here we have a portion of scripture that many believe is just God stressing the need to follow His will. He does this by repeating to find out what his good will is three times in different ways. When in reality, this scripture is showing us that God has three levels of His will.
Three wills of God
good [Greek: agathós] – inherently (intrinsically) good
acceptable [Greek: euárestos] (from 2095 /eú, "well, good" and 700 /aréskō, "to please") – properly, well-pleasing (gratifying) because fully acceptable.
perfect [Greek: téleios] perfect, (a) complete in all its parts, (b) full grown, of full age, (c) specially of the completeness of Christian character.
Scripture is letting us know that since we all are at different levels in Christ, we are supposed to grow into the highest level of His will. The first level is His good will, the second is His acceptable or well-pleasing will and the last is His perfect or complete and mature will. God in His divine knowledge has always allowed for different levels of maturity for the imperfections of man. Let me give you one example from the Old Testament and a couple from the New.
Examples of wills.
Old
And he shall bring his trespass offering unto the LORD for his sin which he hath sinned, a female from the flock, a lamb or a kid of the goats, for a sin offering; and the priest shall make an atonement for him concerning his sin.
This illustrates what God really wants and requires for a trespass offering. This is when someone sins against his neighbor and must make restitution. God wants a female lamb or young goat. This is exactly what He wants, His perfect will for the trespass offering. However, God knows that not everyone has these animals.
7And if he be not able to bring a lamb, then he shall bring for his trespass, which he hath committed, two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, unto the LORD; one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering. Leviticus 5:6,7
God makes a provision for the poor. If they are unable to bring the lamb, God allows them to bring two of the listed birds instead. This is, though not ideal, acceptable.
New
I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I. 9 But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn. 1 Corinthians 7:8
This scripture shows that although neither life condition is a sin, one is clearly better than the other depending on the individual. Both being single and being married are good so long as you live your life to glorify God. Being single is better than being married because people can totally devote there lives to God. You don't have to split time between God, a spouse and your children. God does not expect those of us with families to neglect our responsibilities at home. This will result in a balancing act that sometimes may be difficult. However, if we can't control our lust for the opposite sex, then it is better to marry than be single and sin. Sin by the constant lust in our hearts or the act of fornication.
Because God wants us to live holy lives. We see that even after we make a decision for Christ, there are many other life choices we must make. Some of them are daily choices and others are once in a lifetime choices.
Stumbling Blocks for choice
Ignorance- Wrong information wrong conclusion
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15
Tradition of man over Bible teachings
3 For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? 4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. Romans 3:3,4
Persecution
And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. 5 But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him. Luke 12:4,5
The love of Money
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Matthew 6:24
But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
