I want to start by thanking Pastor and Mrs. for all the work that you folks have done in putting things together. I know that everything always rises and falls on leadership, and so I appreciate your pastor and his wife so much. to the assistant pastors that work here that have quite a job doing a lot of things behind the scenes that sometimes people don't always see. And I praise the Lord for that. When you get a body of believers that work together, it's good to see God doing His perfect will in the lives of so many. And so Joyce and I are very, very thrilled to be here. I've actually known about your church for a number of years since I've worked with Jerry and Linda Craven. for the last 15, 16, 17 years. My wife and I were planning on going over to New Zealand again next summer. We're going to be taking about 10, 11 weeks and spending six weeks in New Zealand and then four weeks in Australia. But it's always a joy to get with Jerry and Linda. We want to continue to lift them up in prayer. They need our prayers. And they need encouragement in the Lord. And I told Jerry, I said, listen, you find a place that we can build a church. I said, you let me know. I said, I'll try to get a crew of men. I'll come myself. I'll do whatever I can, but pray for them. They need your prayers right now. Also, if you will, I ask you to pray for my wife and I. We're getting ready to embark on something that we have not done personally ourselves for 16 years. The last time we were in Brazil was in 2000. And we're going to be getting ready here in about 10 days. We have a team of people that's coming in, young people, college, high school students. And we're going to be training them. They're going to be going and learning language and learning a lot of things that we're going to do in ministry in Portuguese. And we're going to try to get as proficient as we can in about seven or eight days. But you pray for us as we go down. We're going to be doing boat evangelism. Now, if you know anything about boat evangelism, you get a bunch of people and you get them all together and you get on a boat and you take about 180 miles and all you do is go up and down the Amazon River and go in and out of villages and the only time you get off that boat is to go in and preach the gospel. I just recently heard from the missionary that we're working with yesterday that he told us, he said, this will be the first time that we've had a chance to go into a tribal group of people And this is a group of Indian people that live down there on the Amazon. And so we're going to get a chance to go in and give the gospel. Some of these places that we're going into will be the very first time that many of these people will have ever heard that Jesus loves them and that Jesus died for them. So you pray for us. We're going to be enduring by living on the boat for two weeks. We're going to eat in the boat, sleep in the boat, shower on the boat. We're going to rehearse on the boat. Everything we're going to do is on the boat except for when we go in and out of villages. So you pray that those Zika mosquitoes will stay far away from us as we're down there and pray that the Lord will give us grace as we continue to minister. If you take your Bibles now and if you'll open up this evening to the book of Joshua, the book of Joshua. And I want to preach a message. A lot of people say, well, what kind of message did you preach? Well, I like to say that I like to preach evangelistically. I'm a missionary evangelist, I think, and I enjoy stirring people up. I enjoy getting people excited about serving God, being involved in what God has for them. And I believe that every single person that is sitting in here tonight that is saved, that is born again, God has something for you. And He has something for you to do. Now, in some essence, some people will probably say, well, I'm not sure what it is. Well, you know, if you seek God's face long enough, He'll show you. And tonight, I want to go ahead and preach a message to you, which is a message that I've preached a number of times. I actually... I should say that this is a message that's not one that I put together, but rather a message that I got off of someone else. And perhaps you might have heard of the old evangelist Lester Roloff. Anybody ever heard of Lester Roloff? I had somebody tell me one time, they said, Lester Roloff actually preached a thousand messages that he never wrote. They said that quite the contrast of Spurgeon that wrote a thousand messages that he never got to preach. And so I believe that sometimes content that other people have preached holds good meaning. And tonight we want to look at something that I believe all of us can relate to. And the title of the message is called Life's Choices. Life's Choices. Joshua chapter 24 verse 15, only one verse, let's read it, and it says, 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. Pause. Look what Joshua says. But as for me and my house, he says, we will serve the Lord. He's already determined what He's going to do. Let's pray. Father, Lord, You know that we can't do this on our own, and Lord, we need Your help. Father, we come before You tonight asking You that You will hide us behind the cross, and I just pray that tonight, Father, that all of us will be stirred, that Lord, each and every one of us will see the need of being able to serve You. And Father God, I just ask You that You'll help us tonight to live for You and to do our best. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. I believe personally that God has given each and every individual in this auditorium tonight a slice of time. That's all we have in this life, this journey that we make. God has given each one of us a slice of time to make an eternal difference in the lives of someone else. It's amazing how your life touches the lives of so many other people. I'm sure that many of you can go back in your mind and think about the different people in your lifetime that has had a profound effect on your life. Maybe what you're doing today is as a result of what somebody else did in your life, how they encouraged you as an individual, how you were willing to step forward and say, I'm going to try this even though I don't know how to do it. I believe that God does not choose people who are qualified for His work. I believe He does the choosing, and when we are willing He will qualify us. You see, He's just ready for volunteers. And tonight, in Life's Choices, we see that Joshua is choosing. He says, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. To choose this day whom you will serve. The word choose means to select or it means to pick. And every single day, every single one of us that are in here, from the littlest one to the oldest one, every person makes choices every day. And every choice that we make bears consequences. Every choice. As a matter of fact, the older you get, the more choices that you make. And one of the things that you can never do is relive the days that are behind you. Because once they're gone, they're gone. Oh, wouldn't it be good if we could put things in reverse and go back and some of the decisions and some of the choices that we made in our lifetime and we look back and say, boy, I'd never do that again. But you know, we cannot relive those days that are behind us. This evening I want to look at four points that have to deal with choices that we make in our lives. Choices that we make in our lives. And so the first point would be this. In some areas, you have no choice. Well, that's very interesting, no choice. Well, first of all, you had no choice in your place of birth. You had no choice in the time of your birth or who your parents were going to be or what your race was going to be. You had no choice in your siblings. You see, in life, There are some situations where you have no choice. Number two, we see another situation where some choices that we make are not really that important. Some choices are just not important. Now you say, well, what do you mean by that? Well, give an example. Let's just say a place of where we eat. Now, I know all these missionaries that are in here. I know for a fact as they're on the road and they're traveling and they're going down the road, you may have preference. But you know, one place is just about as good as another. I've eaten at Subway, I've eaten at Burger King, Wendy's, McDonald's, you name it, Taco Bell. You know, you think of all these places that you go. You know, those choices are really not that important. Perhaps the car that you came in, I'm sure we can go in the parking lot out here, and I'm sure we can find all sorts of different models of automobiles out there. And in essence, almost every one of these vehicles that are out there will get us down the road just as well as another. Now, there may be some people in here that would beg to differ on that question. They may be a Ford man, and they've been that way all their life. But you know something? Those kind of choices, and we can see right now where we're going with this. Well done. But some choices are just not that important. So we see, number one, that in life, some things you have no choice. Number two, some choices that we make are just not that important. Number three, but we also see that some choices that we make are very important. Very important choices in our life. Such as, and I'm going to give you three of them. Number one, The most important choice that you will ever make in your life is your choice between heaven or hell. That's a choice that every single person has got to make in their lifetime. And to me, it's the most important choice. It's nothing to gamble about. It's nothing to decide, well, I'll put it off till later. It's the most important choice you will ever make in your life. Another thing, too, would be You're mate for life. I believe that God has ordained that a man and a woman should mate for life, and that's the way it should be. In today's society it doesn't always happen, but I believe that that was God's ordained promise of what we should have. One man, one woman. And that person that you're going to spend the rest of your life with, in whatever capacity it is, But yet another choice is a choice of God's will for your life. And I believe that God has a choice for you to make whether or not you're going to succeed and do what His will is for you. I believe God has a will for everyone. And everyone that's here has got to make a choice. Are you going to follow what God's will is for your life? Do you know what God's will is for your life? understanding what God wants you to do personally. You know, if it's just a matter of taking a gospel track and handing a gospel track out to somebody, every single day I ask God, I tell my young people when they travel with me, I say, lock and load. That means go get some tracks and let's have them ready to go because we're going to go out and pass out tracks. I believe that we should try to hand out a gospel track every day to someone. You know you come in contact many, many times with many different people. How many gospel tracts do you hand out in one year? How many gospel tracts do you hand out in two years? That's a choice that you make. So we see three things here this evening. Number one, some areas you have no choice. Number two, some of the choices that you make are not that important. Number three, there are some very important choices that you make in your life. But number four, I want you to look at something for just a moment. I'm going to give you some basic principles this evening that will help you make right choices, right choices. If you'll open your Bibles over to James chapter 4 for just a moment. In James chapter 4, and we're going to look at five different things here. But in James chapter 4 and verse 414, and this is what it says, My friend, I believe that this verse tells me that life is brief. The Bible compares your life as a vapor. It's here, it's gone. Your life is not that long. And the Bible tells us that because it's brief, I believe that what we ought to do is look at that as a principle that should help us make right decisions. Because you don't know what tomorrow holds. You don't know what next week holds. But you should make right decisions, and life is brief. Look over at Proverbs chapter 27. Proverbs chapter 27, if you will. In Proverbs chapter 27, here's another thing that will help us, another principle that will help you make right decisions. In Proverbs chapter 27, verse 1, it says, "...boast not thyself of tomorrow, for what thou knowest not what the day may bring forth." That verse tells me that life is uncertain. According to Proverbs, life is very uncertain. And because it's uncertain, it should help you evaluate life in general to make right decisions. Right choices is something that all of us should try to strive to make. Hebrews chapter 9, if you will please. In Hebrews chapter 9, and in verse 27, a third principle that will help us make right decisions. In Hebrews chapter 9, Verse 27, it says, "...and as is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." That tells me that death is sure. Regardless of how we feel about death, it's coming. It's sure. It's going to happen. And might I say, if you live long enough, you will taste death. unless the Lord comes back in the rapture. And I say, even so quickly, come Lord Jesus. I'm like Oliver Green used to say. He said, you know, I don't want to die. I don't know anybody that stands around and says, I want to die tomorrow. Let me die. I want to die. I don't know a lot of people that say they want to die, but I will tell you this much. If I fall flat on the pulpit up here, a pastor comes up and he checks my pulse and he says, Brother Bob's gone. Might I give you this encouragement? A body will be laying here, but the Spirit of God that saved me almost 51 years ago will be in the presence of Almighty God. I know how I know how I know. And let me say, death is sure, so it's coming. And because it's coming, that should help us say, you know, I don't know if I'll be here tomorrow. Every decision I make today, every choice needs to be a good choice for the Lord. Let's look at the fourth principle. in Matthew chapter 24. In Matthew chapter 24, if you will. In Matthew chapter 24 and in verse 44 it says, Therefore be ye also ready, for in such an hour ye think not the Son of Man cometh. This verse tells us that Christ may come back at any time. My friends, Jesus is coming soon. And I don't have to tell a lot of you folks that are a little older, that's been around for a while, that the way things are today are not like they used to be 15, 20, and 30, and 40, and 50 years ago. I believe that the Lord is preparing and getting things gathered up to come back to take His saints to be with Him. I believe that Jesus is coming at any time. And you know something? You know when we make decisions, no matter what it is, whatever choices they may be, if we would keep in mind that Jesus is coming back soon, I believe that might help us make right choices. The fifth and last principle. Turn over to Hebrews, if you will. Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 3. Hebrews 2 verse 3. It says, "...how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, which at first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him?" That verse tells me right there that there is no escape for procrastinators. I can't tell you how many times I've talked to people about trusting Christ, and their words to me was this, I'm not ready. I just don't want to do it right now. I just don't want to do it. If you ever notice, sometimes people get very, very disturbed about that when you ask them that question. There is no escape for those that procrastinate. And might I say tonight, we need to make right choices because there is no escape. Every single thing that you do, every single thing that happens in your life bears a consequence. Everything. I believe that God can just put a whole life up before us, just like a timeline, and He can go back every single day, 24 hours a day, every single thing that has ever happened in our life. There's no surprises to God. So this evening, my question to you would be, what kind of choices are you making with your life? What kind of choices do you make? Are you making good ones or are you making bad ones? I'm so glad to see that the church has such a fervor and an excitement about seeing missionaries go throughout the world. I believe that it is the church's responsibility to send missionaries. But you know, Today, we're finding less people going to the mission field and a whole lot more people coming back home. Unfortunately, there's a whole lot less people that fill the spots of those that are returning. Are you making positive choices in your life every single day? What about the spiritual decisions that you make in your life? Are they spiritual decisions that will count for all eternity? What would God have you to do? What is your role in missions? I attend Morningside Baptist Church in Greenville, South Carolina. We have a couple of senior saints at our church. And I'm encouraged when I walk through the door and I have one of these senior people that'll come over to me and they'll tell me, I prayed for you three times this week. All the missionaries that the church supports, those cards come out, and they pray for every single one of them, wherever they are, whatever their needs are. You know, we need prayer warriors today. You may say, well, what can I do? I'm not really good, I can't sing, and there's a lot I can't teach, and there's so many things that I'm not really good at. One thing you ought to be good at is praying. Because if you know the Lord, you need to be talking to Him on a regular basis. Spending time with Christ. How do you expect Him to communicate with you when you're not willing to communicate with Him yourself? I believe that world missions is not an elective. I believe that world missions is a required course. I believe it's required. And whether you go, or whether you send someone else, you still have a part of the Great Commission. Right before Jesus ascended into heaven, he gave a commission to his followers. He told them to go into all the world and preach the gospel. He ascended into heaven. Paul thought that he was coming back soon, real soon. And the Bible says that a thousand years is but a day, and a day is but a thousand years. Well, if we look back during the time whenever Christ was crucified, in the time that He ascended into heaven, my friends, He's only been gone for a couple of days when it comes down to the light of eternity. And He is coming back soon. So our challenge tonight, for all of us, is in the choices that you make. that you make the right choices and that your choices are based upon the Word of God. With heads bowed and eyes closed tonight and as pastor comes to close as he sees fit, I would ask you this question. What kind of choices are you making? Are you making choices that are positive? Are you making choices for God that would be pleasing unto Him? Many of you here tonight perhaps have struggled, even in your own life, about maybe what you should be doing. I can't begin to tell you a number of people that, even in an older age in their lifetime, that God got a hold of them and they started doing things in different capacity for missions. And God was able to use them. God was able to challenge them. And they went forward for God. What are you doing tonight? Do you pray for your missionaries? There's that song that we sing, Oh, How I Love Jesus. And I love that old song. But you know, if we love Jesus so much, we ought to be doing what he wants us to do. We need to be his faithful followers. And I trust that tonight, some of you tonight would make right choices in your life, that you would do some things for God that maybe perhaps you don't even know you can do yourself. Pastor, you'll come. Heavenly Father, as we close tonight, we ask that you would speak to our hearts. Lord, through the preaching of the message and through the life that we've been reminded of, Joshua, who said, ask for me in my house, we will serve the Lord. Perhaps, Lord, there's a life choice that we need to make. Lord, I pray that you speak to hearts. Life choices guided into daily choices. Lord, I pray that we would desire to please you in everything that we say and everything that we do. Have your way as we close this service.