We are a product of the choices  we make. Our lives today are the result of hundreds, and literally thousands, of choices we’ve  made on a weekly basis. No where is this better illustrated than in the Old Testament with the life of Joshua.  Anybody remember Joshua?    Joshua was the one who took the baton from Moses.  He was the leader of the Israelites, and he led the Israelites from the desert into the promised land of Canaan, which was promised to the ancestors all the way back to Abraham. He had been in the promised land and had fought many fights as well.

After they had entered into that land  in the city of Shechem, a city  in Canaan (it would become the first capital city of the kingdom of Israel), Joshua makes a clear decision and he gathers all of the Israelites. Here is the backdrop: they had rehearsed and remembered the stories of  their ancestors, but now that they had entered the promised land, they thought  the journey was over as far as decision making goes.

Anybody been there? God leads you into a certain spot and then you think there are no problems in the promised land.  Well, they were there in the promised land and some were making the decision to serve God; others were serving  their old gods of  Egypt and making poor decisions.  So, Joshua gathered them together so they could  think about all God had done; he also wanted to call them to accountability.

 Joshua reminded them God had blessed them in miraculous ways. He reminded them that is was God who had promised the land  where they were now living. He had promised it to their ancestors all the way back to Abraham. And then Joshua says, “It was God who sent the plagues on Egypt.”

It was God who led your ancestors out of Egypt. It was God who answered the cries of your ancestors when they were at the edge of the Red Sea and parted the waters so they could cross.  It was God whot allowed you to stand where you are.  Someone say that with me, “It was God.”  He goes on to say, “It was God who delivered you from the Amorites.  It was God that delivered you from the Moabites.  It was God who delivered you from the  Perrizzites, Canaanites, Hittites,  Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites.It was God that delivered you from the citizens of Jericho.” And then he pleads with them to turn away from their false idols, stop choosing to serve those thing that don't lead to God, and serve the God who brought them along the journey.

Joshua called them to accountability, but he realized  they had to make the choice. He wanted to get them to that point so he said this, “But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourself this day whom you will serve.” Then Joshua says something that provides  the basic building block on which all healthy choices must be constructed.This is what he says, “But as for me, in my house, we will serve the Lord”

This morning we're talking about healthy choices. And if we are going to make healthy choices, we must understand that serving God is the basic building block on  which all healthy choices are to be constructed.  Here Joshua has called them to remember their history, to remember where God had brought them from. They had come a long way, not just them, but their parents and their parents’ parents. He was basically trying to tell them it would be ludicrous to change now. Joshua understood the common denominator of all healthy choices is the outcome has to lead to service towards God.  In short, giving God our heart and giving our heart to God alone, is a prerequisite of making healthy choices.

Any choice, any decision we make, must be conceived of and ultimately understood as building God's kingdom as we continue the journey each and every day.  And Ginghamsburg, everybody has this choice to make. This is a daily choice. Every day we have to wake up and decide to choose this daywhom we will serve. How are you doing in the decision-making process? 

Today is even the day to make that choice. We have been challenged by Christ to choose to serve this day, not only to serve God, but to bring some folks with us.  This Easter, write down the people that you are going to bring to God, and God is going to equip you to bring into the fold. Joshua realized that serving God was a choice, a conscious choice. And yet even though it is the only healthy choice, it still can be difficult.

One of my friends gave up sweets for Lent, and the first party they went to turned out to be just a sweets party.  Healthy choices can be challenging.  Often the other options would be so much easier.  One of my daughters has changed her mind three times already on what she has given up for Lent. Sometimes it's so much easier and less stressful to just go the easy route or the wide road.  I'm here to tell you that your conscious mind will fight you at times and try to convince you to take the easy road. Your conscious mind will try to convince you that the narrow road is too hard.

Why is that?  Well, make no mistake about it, healthy choices can be painful at times.  And temporary though it may be, there are problems in the promised land.  As we decide to make that decision to start into the promised land;  accepting Christ as our Savior, and we start that journey, we know there will be problems in the promised land. If you are still breathing, there are still conscious choices you and I are are going to have to make on a daily basis, and we are going to be called upon to serve God.

We are called upon to choose God's path for are lives.  Not just on sunny days. But even on snowy days.  We are called to choose our path in sickness and in health.  When we understand and when we don't. When we feel like it and when we don't.  Healthy choices and serving God are inseparable. There's no mistake about it, giving God your heart, and God alone, is the road less traveled.

It is the right road but it’s not an easy road. At times, just like the Israelites, our mind will have us questioning whether it is worth it or not.  I don't know about you, but sometimes the enemy, he doesn't use a little 12 point font.  He make these billboards go across the newspapers of my mind.  Asking me, Brian, is it worth it? 

Just a couple weeks ago, I was at the homegoing service of Sam Dixon.  He was the general secretary of the United Methodist Committee on Relief.  There in North Carolina, we were remembering all the things that Sam had done. We were there because he lost his life under the rubble in the Montana hotel  of  Haiti, serving God.  I am going to tell you, the enemy's voice went across the screen, Brian, “Is it worth it?” 

Just this past week I was in Virginia speaking at a memorial service of a friend of mine, another Sam.  This was Sam Bradley.  Sam Bradley had served God faithfully for over 50 years.  He was the  epitome  of integrity and what it meant to walk the walk and talk the talk.  But after a six-year battle with leukemia, he died.  We thought he was going to pull through it.  And the enemy with that billboard , “Is it worth it?”

This past week, a friend of mine called me and said pray for Andrea Johnson, another godly woman who was walking that walk and died in a tragic head-on collision.  “Is it worth it?”  Well, let me move a little closer to home. 

This past weekend again, I was out-of-town and while we were away our family pet, Kingking, was at a loving home. We left him there and while we were there, he tragically died.  You know, I think my six-year old daughter put it the best way.  When we get back in town, she's crying these buckets of tears and I'm holding her, she says, “Daddy, I did it, I did it!  I prayed every day that we were out of town, I prayed that Kingking would be allright.” Then she says, “Dad, evidently it doesn't work.”

Has anybody ever been there?  We know what that's like. We know what it's like to pray to God and to do our best, and then the enemy flashes across our mind and  wants us to believe that apparently it's not worth it. And the key in that word is apparently, you see.  The root word is “appears.” 

In the Bible it cautions us against judging, and going through life on what simply “appears.”  You see it’s Proverbs 3:5 where we are reminded, trust in the Lord with all of our heart, and lean not on what appears.  Lean not on our own understanding and all our ways submit to him. And he will make  the path straight.  Do not be wise in our own eyes.  Fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to our body and nourishment to our bones. This is God's promise. Making healthy choices requires decisions based on faith and having laser-like  precision aimed on looking at the promise instead of the problem.

Understand that you and I, we don't have all the answers. But God does. Understanding that God  has all the answers is huge; it seems simple but it’s huge. If God has all the answers and  there is a disagreement in your mind with what you want to do and what God wants you to do,make a healthy choice. Do what God wants you to do.That's part of making healthy choices.  Lean not on your own understanding and trust him in all your ways.  Scott Peck talks about it in his book The Journey on the Road Less Traveled.  He refers to it as a  process of being conscious that our understanding is limited.  It is simply limited.  But God has all knowledge and understanding.  I propose that faith in God is the bridge that connects our limited understanding into what God knows.

Every day faith connects and empowers us  to consciously empty our self limitations  and fill up under God's ultimate and unlimited possibilities.  Peck goes on  to talk about how the conscious is where we know it all.  But the unconscious connects us with what God knows.  Anybody ever been in the situation where you didn't know how you were going to make it, but you knew God did?  All you saw, from here to there, was a brick wall, and God formed a door and allowed you to walk through it.

Somebody knows what it’s like to have a job show up out of nowhere. Somebody knows what it’s like when the check is gone but somehow the bills still get paid.  Somebody knows what it’s like to be reconciled to the irreconciliable. That’s the promise that God wants us to focus on. Remember that with laser-like precision,  God can make a way. Serving God also means being led by God. We must empty ourselves from a know-it-all attitude and fill up on faith that demonstrates God has it all under control. Ultimately, this is how we learn to be led by the Spirit. This is how we learn to live in this world we are in, making daily choices.

Joshua chose to follow God from the very moment that God had sent him and the 11 other spies; there were 12 of them altogether, to go into the promised land. When they first went in to spy out the land, this is what God told them “I want you to go and and spy out the land. I want you to check out several things. One, I want you to check out the people. What are they like? Tall, small? Are they many or are they few? Come back and let me know what the people are like. Tell me about the land that I am leading you into. Is it fertile or is it  barren? Tell me about the town. Is the town fortified? Are there walls or will we just march in?” Here’s the deal, God knew what the land was like. God knows what your land is like. God knows where you’re headed. But God wanted to see what you saw. So this is the deal, after 40 days they come back and the 12 spies make their report. There was a slight difference. They all agreed on everything, but the God thing. It would be better for it to be the other way around, at least agree on the God. They agreed on everything but the God thing. They get back, they agreed the people were powerful, the Amalekits, Jebusites, Amorites, and theCanaanites They agreed that the land was fertile, that it was flowing with milk and honey.

Here’s the deal, when Joshua and Caleb reportedthey had a laser-like focus on what they saw, not on the problem, but on the promise that God was giving them this land. So when they drew the conclusion that the Israelites  shouldgo in, take and possess the land, then the other ten spies gathered the entire assembly, and in unison shouted out, “are you crazy?” This is what they said in Numbers 13. We can’t attack those people. They’re stronger than we are. All the people we saw there were of great size. We even saw the Nephilins there, the giants. And this is what they said, “We seem like grasshoppers in our own eyes.” And we seem the same to them. They had become victims of seeing their predicament in their opponents’ eyes, as opposed to seeing the situation in God’s eyes. This in turn, allowed them to continue to make some very unhealthy choices. Here it is, if all that we see is what is reflected off the retina, the light-sensitive area on the back surface on the eye that allows us to create a visual image of the world, if all that we see is that which reflects on the retina, then we can’t see very well. That’s external vision, but there has to be some insight vision.

God has chosen us to be co-creators as we move forward. And, we just can’t rely on the retina to make healthy decisions. Scott Peck gets it right again; we must move from the microcosm to the macrocosm. The microcosm is what the retina sees, it’s what we understand between each ear, the microcosm is what we understand. But, we must move to the macrocosm and realize that we are co-creators in everything we do, each and every day, and God is with us. We must allow oursleves to move to the macrocosm, take God with us, and see what God sees. That’s a part of making healthy choices.

Well, Joshua tries to get them to see this, he and Caleb, they tear their clothes and say “The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good” and he tells them in so many words, you were looking through the retina, you were looking through the micro, but come on, we’re not in this alone. You know what? If we were in this alone, we should go home right now because it would be a hopeless situation.  But we’re not in it alone. We are empowered by the very thing that gives us breath. And he tries to tell them to look past what you see and look what God has told us that God sees. If the Lord is pleased with us...this is what he says “he will lead us into the land, a land flowing with milk and honey and he will give it to us.”  He tells them just don’t rebel against God, don’t fear the micro, don’t fear the problem that just the retia sees. But expand our understading with laser-like focus on God’s promise. It’s God’s spirit that takes us from the microcosm, that is our limited ability and understanding, into the macrocosm that is the vastness of God’s possibilities for our lives.

Healthy choices on the road less traveled involve choosing God’s path over the path of daily fear each and every day. When those fears cross your mind, let it pass. Don’t choose that choice. We’re called to be Olympians in God’s army. Have a laser-like focus on God’s plan and on God’s promise. Well, they came back and since the Israelites were unable to see what God saw, God made his verdict. For each day they were spying out the land, they would spend one year in the wilderness. And so it was. God realized they did not have enough faith. They were relying on the external sight and not the insight that God was prepared to give them.  They were stuck in the microcosm, thinking it was all up to them. Never forget, it’s not all up to you. God is with you in this battle and this fight and making healthy choices. They were trying to put God’s mind in their mind, instead of releasing their mind into the mind of God. The micro can fit into the macro, but there’s no way the  macro can fit into micro. Healthy choices means moving in God’s spirit and moving in God’s timing. It was obvious they would have to teach their children and God would have to build them up for years to where they could walk on the insight of God. So, they came up with another idea. Now they decided, well, maybe we should take the land after all. After Moses had told them that God had changed directions now and this is the deal. They tried to go in without God. Has anyone tried to force God into your plan?  “God, this is a good plan, let’s go.”

 Well, Moses warned them. He said, “Don't you do it. Don't go up there, because the Lord is not with you, and you will be defeated.”Following through on healthy choices is realizing that battle is not yours.  The battle is the Lord's.  What does that mean?  That means if the battle is God's, then you better make sure God is with you.  In all that we say, in all that we do, we are to be led by the promise and expect God's grace to show up just when we need it.

 I told you about my week this past week. Well I had some decisions to make this weekend as well.  I had to remember to focus on the promise. There we were in Virginia,  the memorial service for Sam Bradley was over, and there was some decisions to make.  I felt just like Pete did, having these decisions to make. It was past midnight, 12:30 a.m. My son Brian had had his hair braided. That took a long time. Now we had  many things left to do on our to-do list, but we had very little time left. So some important decisions had to be made.

 Here is the challenge: my girls were in Arlington, so they weren't in the car.  It was me, my wife, Brian and his friend.  So  it was 12:30 at night, the last night before we were to head home.  Brian and his friend wanted to travel south to Woodbridge.  They wanted to play PS3 games all night.  When you're young, you can do that, and that's what they wanted to do.  And when you have good grades in my house you can do that occasionally.  That's what they wanted to do. Now Candace wanted to head north into Arlington where the girls werewith her parents staying the night.  I wanted to travel east.  I wanted to go east to see my 80-year old, single dad. I was there earlier, but I told him I was coming back. So, those were the three choices. What would you do? 

 Well, let me give you a little more information.  Did I tell you I was driving?  Did I mention I was tired?  Did I mention I'd given up coffee for Lent?  Here is the deal breaker right here.  The deal breaker was I  was not only tired, but I wanted to make one more stop.  It was after midnight and the only place that could accommodate all of us was my dad's house.  Well, we traveled east. So we head to my dad's house, we arrive in the driveway and it's about one o'clock now. There is this other car in the driveway.  One o'clock and the engine's still running, so it must have just pulled up. 

  So I get out and this is kind of peculiar, I go over to the car and this lady says, “Hi, my name is Miss Vickie.”  Well the plot thickens.  About two weeks prior, one of my siblings told me about this phantom Miss Vickie that shows up occasionally.  Miss Vickie looked like she was about 45.  I don't know whether she lived out of her car or what the deal was there.  Sounded like she had had a drink or two, but anyway. So I go in the house, I'm a little bit upset.  I'm not only tired, I'm mad now. So I go in the house and tell Dad, “You have company outside.”  He says okay and goes outside, invites everybody back in.  Miss Vickie, you can stay in this room.  Brian and Candace, here.  The rest of us can camp out right here. Well it was obvious now that I had a decision to make.

 Did I tell you about the cold chill that was in the car going to my dad's house?   So  on the way there, everybody's eyes were on me, and no one was happy with my choice.  Now everybody was still looking at me, wondering what I was going to do now. And I wasn't too nice to Miss Vickie. But I thought about itand decided, as for me and my house, we're going to serve God. I went from being tired to wide awake. I was ready to make a decision.  So I went and told Miss Vickie, “Miss Vickie. is was great meeting you, we'll see you later.”

Then we all climbed back into the car and traveled south to Woodbridge.  Brian and his friend got to play PS3 all night. Then we traveled north to Arlington.At four in the morning, I remember finally going to bed and realizing I had experienced God's grace. I went from tired to wide awake. I don't know about you, but I'll take God's grace anyway it shows up.  I laid down and then the next morning we got up and went to church.  Had a great worship celebration and then headed home.  And I knew I had experienced God's grace in that process.

So we got home, said goodbye to Kingking and we met grace. God's grace will show up all the time. You can decide to make a choice at the beginning of each and every daythat it's all about serving God, that you're going to have a laser-like focus on the promises that God has given us. If we serve him and not the problem, God will then lead us from the microcosm to the macrocosm as we are led by God's spirit.

If we continue to trust God's timing, I'm here to tell you, just when you need it, Grace will show up. Will  you pray with me? 

As we journey on the road less traveled, God, we thank you for defining that journey.  For allowing us to understand that serving you is the building block which all healthy choices are constructed.  Thank you, God, for not only leading us but allowing us to be co-creators, to be the vehicle by which your will is accomplished.  Be with us during this season of Lent each and every day.  As we make those healthy decisions, God, allow us to have that laser-type precision.  Focusing on the promise.  Being led by you, guided by you.  so that we will experience transformation.  In Jesus' name, Amen.