Introduction: "It’s quiet. It’s early. My coffee is hot. The sky is still black. The world is still asleep. The day is coming. In a few moments the day will arrive. It will roar down the track with the rising of the sun. The stillness of the dawn will be exchanged for the noise of the day. The calm of solitude will be replaced by the pounding pace of the human race. The refuge of the early morning will be invaded by decisions to be made and deadlines to be met. For the next twelve hours I will be exposed to the day’s demands. It is now that I must make a choice. Because of Calvary, I’m free to choose. And so I choose." (When God Whispers Your Name, Max Lucado, p. 73) "…and so I choose."

This morning we are going to talk about choices. Particularly I want to talk about the choice we must make to live deliberately Christian.

The passages that were read to you earlier describe two occasions in the Book of Joshua where choices had to be made. One was a personal choice of Joshua as to whether or not he would surrender to the authority of God prior to going into battle. The other occurred late in Joshua’s life when all the battles were over and it was now laid upon the people as to their personal choice to follow God or not. Joshua tells them that they must make a personal choice. He tells them that he has made his choice: "As for me and my family, we will serve the Lord."

In the world that you and I face today it is no longer will it be expected or accepted that you are Christian. You have discovered that the terrain, customs, language and culture of your environment is passively hostile to you, your faith and your God. It is that moment of discovery that is the most telling of all. For in that moment you are given the chance to choose, to choose to live a deliberate Christian life. Choosing a deliberate Christian life is one where you no longer make your choices grounded in the safety of a Christian climate and culture. It is a lifestyle that you choose in spite of your climate and culture. A deliberate Christian life is one lived intentionally, completely and strategically as a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ. What does a deliberate Christian life look like? It looks like a person who is cautious about time, convinced about truth, leads by compassion and has the courage to risk.

A person deliberate about their Christianity is cautious about time. Time stands as an adversary to all that you would desire to do. Dylan Thomas said , "Time holds us green and dying. Each of us only gets so much time, and our fate is to watch this stock steadily diminish." Our world has lost its shape of time. You already live lives ruled by 24/7/365. We somehow think that time as an entity will increase for us. Instead it will only accelerate. Yet we are not capable as humans of adapting completely to the acceleration of time. We are not machines that can be redesigned for the speed with which time is moving and will continue to move. Even Chuck Yeager, who was the first to fly faster than the speed of sound, said, "I don't think many people really save a lot of time by moving faster from one point to the next, because from the time you're born until the time you die, it's pretty cut-and-dried. When that time comes, that's it. You have to take advantage of time, not speed."

For that very reason Jesus said, "All of us must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent me, because there is little time left before the night falls and all work comes to an end."(John 9:4 NLT) Paul would admonish the Ephesian church, "So be careful how you live, not as fools but as those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity for doing good in these evil days. Don't act thoughtlessly, but try to understand what the Lord wants you to do. (Eph.5:15-17 NLT)

Dorothy Bass stresses in her book, Receiving the Day: Christian Practices for Opening the Gift of Time that time and each day is a gift. Choosing to live a deliberate Christian life means you must find a way each day to give your attention to what matters. It is imperative that you choose to daily open your life to the God of time so that when time is no more you will not regret your use of time. I told Kathy while we were walking recently that it surprises me sometimes that how many people who could exercise don’t do anything at all. In the same way I am often disappointed at believers who never open their Bible to have any ongoing personal relationship with God. Time runs out. If you will choose to live a deliberate Christian life you will be cautious about your time.

A person deliberate about their Christianity is convinced that Jesus Christ is the Source of ultimate truth. The world and world religions find this statement hard to face. Recently Bob and Blanche Abbott spent the Easter holidays with their son in Washington, D.C. On Easter Sunday they went to the National Cathedral, where our youth have sung, for Easter services. The preacher for the morning was Dr. George Regas, who is the Executive Director of the Regas Institute, Pasadena, California. Bob told me that he had three points…

You are already very aware that the prevailing winds of your culture have little patience for things from which you will not retreat. All is negotiable and up for debate and question especially when it comes to what is understood as ultimate truth. The rub between Christianity and the postmodern world you will face is that Christianity claims to be "Truth" in an absolute sense of the word. Or if "absolute" seems too strong or ineffective a term for some, at least Christianity's truth claim is considered to be true in a "transcendental" sense. On the other hand, in nearly every varying definition or conception of postmodernism, "truth" is not Truth. Truth "may" exist, but if it does it is inaccessible to humans, or it may be personal, it may be an ideal, but it is not absolute, transcendental, or universal.

Jesus said in John 8:32, "And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." He would say as well, "I am …the truth"(John 14:6). The New Testament presents Jesus Christ as God’s last and ultimate revelation of truth. The world call’s for a constant check of our position to the truth found in the person of Jesus Christ.

C. S. Lewis, who was a professor at Cambridge University and once an agnostic, wrote about Jesus: "I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse…You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."(Evidence that Demands a Verdict)

If you have not had a moment already there will be a day that you will wonder if all that you have been taught about Jesus is true. In that moment you will be challenged as to whether or not you will abandon truth. It’s not the question or the search it’s the choice that’s important. Choosing a life that is deliberately Christian will not back down from the conviction that ultimate truth is found in Jesus Christ. A person who chooses to be deliberate about their Christianity navigates life convinced that Jesus Christ is the Source of ultimate truth.

A person deliberate about their Christianity serves others with compassion. Derek Webb writes in a song called "Take To the World":

go in peace to love and to serve

let your ears ring long with what you’ve heard

and may the bread on your tongue

leave a trail of crumbs

to lead the hungry back to the place that you are from

(chorus)

and take to the world this love, hope and faith

take to the world this rare, relentless grace

and like the three in one

know you must become what you want to save

‘cause that’s still the way

He takes to the world

go, and go far

take light deep in the earth

believe what’s true

He uses all, even you

"Know you must become what you want to save…" Serving others with compassion is brought out in the powerful movie "Hotel Rwanda", in which Don Cheadle portrays Paul Rusesabagina, who in 1992 as a hotel manager in Kigali, Rwanda saved 1400 lives while one million others perished in tribal violence. In one scene Paul has inadvertently seen some video footage of a massacre only a short distance from the hotel. Later that evening he speaks to the cameraman who apologizes for Paul having viewed the carnage. Paul says, "I am glad that you have shot this footage and that the world will see it. It is the only way we have a chance that people might intervene." The cameraman replies, "Yeah, and if no one intervenes, it’s still a good thing to show?" Paul is surprised and asks, "How can they not intervene when they witness such atrocities?" The cameraman then says, "Ah…I think if people see this footage, they’ll say, ‘Oh, my God. That’s horrible,’ and they’ll go on eating their dinners."

Because we are Christian we are continually confronted with the realization that somehow the life that we have been given by God has meaning and purpose. You are, however, faced with one constant tension and that is because you are Christian you are called to care that people are in pain. You can choose to drown out the cries, deny the injustice, avoid the conflicts, shift the responsibility, ignore the needs and pretend that it is someone else’s job. Yet in the silent places of your soul you know that your life is not your own-it has been bought with a price. You know that you cannot be one of those people who say, "Oh my God that’s horrible…" and go right on living your life as if the horrible didn’t exist. The truth is if you choose to live a deliberate Christian life you will live to serve others with compassion.

Jesus said in Mark 10:45, "For even I, the Son of Man, came here not to be served but to serve others, and to give my life as a ransom for many." Students all over the area have received one of many symbols of success: a degree. There will be others that will come for them: position title, authority, income, size of a home and check stub, and responsibility that may be given. Yet perhaps one of the best symbols they could be given would be a towel and a nail. Jesus took a towel and washed the feet of his closest friends demonstrating his willingness to serve. Jesus also took a Cross and humbled himself completely letting himself be nailed to it. You would be wise if you as well saw yourself with a towel for washing feet and taking a nail to recall the pain of others. What good am I if can choose to touch someone’s life with compassion and but do absolutely nothing? Choosing a life that is deliberately Christian means serving others with compassion.

A person deliberate about their Christianity has the courage to risk. Contemporary Christian musician Derek Webb who I believe is the most significant Christian prophet of this generation, writes in a song that is somewhat of a prayer called "I Repent", "I repent, I repent of confusing peace and idolatry/ by caring more of what they think than what I know of what they need/ by domesticating you until you look just like me/ I am wrong and of these things I repent". That phrase "domesticating you until you look just like me" is one that probes my soul. It troubles me because I believe that one of the sins of my life is that I have done just that, domesticated Jesus Christ until he looks just like me. I have over time lost what Erwin McManus calls the "barbarian" nature of what it means to be Christian and have become civilized. As Mick the trainer told Rocky Balboa in Rocky III, "The problem with you is you became civilized." Unless you make the choice constantly you will wake up some day and you will be "civilized". You can call it mature or wise but the bottom line is that you are no longer barbarian but boring.

There is active in the world a force that is perhaps more diabolical than any other because of it’s hidden subtlety. That force is the force of apathy. Apathy will wear down every dream, every goal, every plan, every ideal, every hope and every vision that a person has bursting within them. That force stands ever vigilant to make sure that nothing new or different changes the comfortable regularity of sameness and tradition. When the dreamer is confronted with apathy they must beware of its’ insidious power to rob their vision of life. It can suck from them all desire to ever fulfill their most noble passion. Overcoming apathy whether in your self or in others will take courage. Courage to risk.

Jesus said in John 16:33,"These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." Jesus words are an assurance that we will face the agonies of this world. We will be pressured to conform and yield our vision to the grave of apathy. Yet he promises equally that he has triumphed over every single opposition that would seek to draw from you the dreams that can change lives.

One of the places that risk must be the word used most often is in the church of Jesus Christ. Yet it is the place where that is least likely to happen. Even those outside the church see this. An Easter editorial in The Weekend Australian had this statement as it’s conclusion. "So the persistent celebration of the final hours of a Galilean rabbi must still surprise us. What does not is the continuing failure of believers to persuade most of us of the importance of a spiritual dimension to our lives. Some of the failure is due to an ineptitude in communication and a loss of nerve. If the salvation on offer, both personal and corporate, is saleable the churches need to offer their product with style and confidence. As it is they seem content to keep the recipe secret and the lifestyle hidden. They are mostly holed up in buildings out of tune with the rest of society, and are astonishingly hidebound. It is time for resurrection. Time to throw off the grave clothes. (From The Weekend Australian, April 22-23, 2000)

Elton Trueblood said, "The tragedy is not that all die but that so many fail really to live. The chief way in which men miss much of the possible richness of living is by playing the game safely, seeking always to avoid all risk." I cannot count the times when I have come back to this statement over and over again. Your willingness to have the courage to risk will be your greatest challenge. Apathy will seduce you to avoid risk as much too painful and unpleasant. Yet it will be your commitment to risk that will produce your greatest triumphs. Your commitment to risk will be the measure of who is winning the battle for domestication-the "barbarian" or the "civilized". If you would choose to live a deliberate Christian life you will do so by having the courage to risk.

You have the opportunity to choose. You cannot do otherwise. You may choose to imagine that being Christian will occur by default. That somehow I can assure myself that it will all happen anyway. If you make that choice then you will fail in the most important choice of your life. You can choose to live a deliberately Christian life. That life will be one where you daily open God’s gift of time, look constantly to Jesus, take for yourself a towel and a nail and refuse the death grip of apathy by having the guts to risk.

Sunday, May 15, 2005 – 10:50 a.m. Service

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org