Joshua 14: 6-13; Romans 4: 16, 19-25

Can you predict what your future holds for you? Well, some of you can today. Tomorrow, a whole group of students and teachers meet in school buildings across the land. Chauffers will take up the task of delivering athletes and musicians and ... you name it...to wherever. Others of us will enter into new adventures of life.

Does your future include doing something beautiful for God? Our own Sunday school welcomes students of all ages to enter into discovering their own answer. Children receive new Bibles to start. We adults should all know the stories of the great men and women of faith. They did something beautiful for God. And we can, too!

I love to bring old people before us. People from Scripture who lived a few years, have something to teach us. Abraham was a man of faith. He knew what his future held for him. It was a day-by-day walk with God. He determined his destiny. He predicted his future. He followed God from his home to a place he did not know. He made choices daily. Sometimes he chose wrong. Disaster came. But when he chose for God...wow! That is why we heard Paul say of Abraham, "he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what He had promised, He was able also to perform." Abraham and Sarah did something beautiful for God!

Caleb is one of my heroes. He also predicted his future. He determined his destiny. He made his choices and his goals laid hold of him. He was one of the twelve spies who looked over Israel. He and Joshua said, "Come on, boys, let’s take them. They’ll be easy!" But it was a minority report. He wandered on the backside of the will of God. For forty years he and Joshua stayed with the people God rescued from slavery in Egypt. But they knew one day that what God promised God would bring about. Caleb did. He predicted his future. "I followed the Lord my God fully." He reminded Joshua of the moment the two of them gave their minority report to Moses. Caleb was ready, even at age eighty-five, to take what God showed him at age forty. "Now give me this hill country!" He was eager to do something beautiful for God.

Can you say that? Does that describe who you are? Can you see your future? Have you determined your destiny? Does it include doing something beautiful for God? Let me challenge you today. As you begin a new school year. Choose your future. Determine your destiny! Build your life on the promises of God! Do something beautiful for Him!

You choose your future. That seems impossible, doesn’t it? So much of life is thrown at us. Just take what comes. Que sera sera - what will be will be. We do not choose to be born. We don’t bargain for our inherited looks. Researchers of human behavior tell us that 60% of men and 90% of women would like to change their appearances if they could. We can a little, but we have to live with what we received in the gene pool.

Maybe you heard of the report given in Newsweek a number of years ago on a fortune-tellers’ convention in Dublin, Ireland. While these seers and palm readers and astrologers were all in one of the convention rooms, a thief broke into many of the rooms and stole all the crystal balls and tarot cards. Police asked the obvious: "Didn’t you know this was going to happen? Why weren’t you able to predict it?"

It is that way in so much of our lives. We live with insecurity as a constant shadow. A father and daughter find themselves in a stand-off. "I’m leaving for Paris to live with my boy friend," reports the daughter. "No, you can’t do that. Please, don’t go. You will never be the same," cries her father. "I’m afraid," she continues. "Afraid? Afraid of what?" he asks. "I’m afraid of getting married, having children, and trying to make a home. Meantime, the whole world could tumble around our ears in a day. You older ones don’t understand. You’ve survived a war. You’ve built things. You’ve raised families. But look at the world you’ve left us. You’ve given us everything except tomorrow!" (M West, The Clowns of God)

Everything except tomorrow! That is the one thing we that we need most! One newspaper carried this classified ad: "Hope chest - Brand new. Half price. Long story." Many of us have had long stories in our lives. So many broken promises and shattered dreams. Some give up. No more promises or commitments. The tombstone of Greek author Kazantzakis has these words: "I hope for nothing, I fear nothing, I am free."

But Jesus Christ offers life abundant today...and eternal life tomorrow. What a contrast! The one thing to remember: we choose our future. Choose the doorway to your tomorrow. Determine your destiny! How?

Know where you want to go. Caleb knew where he wanted to go. He arrived there by FAITH! JUST LIKE ABRAHAM...The same is true for you and me. "If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there! (Anonymous) When God gives us a picture for our future, we find ourselves with a choice. "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it." (Matt. 7) When we choose for Him, we want to follow Him!

Goals don’t have to be big or outlandish or extravagant. They must be important. "To write a mighty book you must have a mighty theme. (Melville, "Preface," Moby Dick) When you know where God wants you to go, He begins to let you be part of something beautiful for Him along the way. Mother Theresa never wanted publicity for her work in Calcutta. She preferred to pour out her life for the least and the last and the lost of that wretched city. Malcolm Muggeridge showed her that others need a direction in their lives, too. She became excited. "Yes! Malcolm, let’s do it! Let’s do something beautiful for God!"

People like Mother Theresa were simply following good examples, like Caleb! "I don’t want a life of ease. Give me a mountain! I want to go on for God with all my heart!" He knew where he wanted to go. He knew which road he was on.

Keep making choices. Some of us say, "Lord, Lord!" But then they go on our own way. They find the short-cut to faith and happiness. They don’t like to think of rough words like sacrifice and service or suffering. But a man or woman who chooses for God knows they want to go where He leads.

A beautiful and rich woman had many men who wanted to marry her. She had a test for them about their values. She had three large caskets made. They needed only to choose the correct casket to win her hand. The first casket, made of silver, handcrafted and elegant, had these words on it: Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves. Those attracted to the shine of silver found only their own face reflected back - a foolish look.

The second casket was more beautiful. Covered with diamonds and precious jewels, had the words, Who chooseth me shall get what many men desire. Men who opened this casket confronted a human skull - riches are dead!

The third casket, of course, was ugly, rough to look at and no appeal for anyone to open it. The words on that container declared: Who chooseth me must give all and hazard all he hath. (Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice)

What we choose ... no... who we choose marks the way for men and women, boys and girls who want to do something beautiful for God. There is no easy way. If you own this goal, you soon discover that the goal owns you. "I have followed the Lord my God fully."

You find yourself risking everything you have to find something that matters. You students are going to be making choices. "Let’s cruise Arkansas, or Main Street tonight." "No thanks. I have to study." "Let’s quit school." "No thanks. I want to be a doctor." You choose a friend to enjoy. You choose to love your friend and marry your friend and you choose to stay together ... when others cannot or will not. Disaster or death comes. You choose how you will respond by the company you have kept.

But what happens if you fail? What is failure? It all depends on whether or not you have predicted your future and determined your destiny!

Caleb knew the joy of following the living God. So did Abraham. By faith our lives get narrowed down until only He matters. William Borden was born into wealth. He went to Yale University. He could have chosen any career. He chose to be a missionary for Jesus Christ. His friends thought him crazy. "Why throw away your life like that? You’ve got so much to live for!"

But Borden knew his future. He determined his destiny. He made his choices and his goals laid hold of him. He set out for China. It took months, not hours like today. When he arrived in Egypt, he was struck down by an incurable disease. Soon it was obvious. He was not going to recover. He never reached his goal. And he couldn’t return home. He could have thought, "What a waste! I should have listened. I should have stayed in America. Why did God do this to me?" He could have said these things. He did not. Instead, just before he died he wrote down just seven words: NO RESERVE, NO RETREAT, AND NO REGRETS!

Can you say that? Does that describe who you are? Can you see your future? Have you determined your destiny? He is worth it all! You and I need only say, "Here I am!"

May the road rise to meet you.

May the wind be always at your back.

May the sun shine warm on your face,

and the rain fall softly on your fields;

And until we meet again,

may God hold you in the palm of His hand.