Some years ago, about the time I entered high school, my older sister and I got into a discussion that changed my attitude about personal responsibility and faith forever.  It’s hard to admit to an older sibling at that age that he or she actually had that much positive influence on your life.  But, in this case, it’s true.

The setting was our living room one evening when we lived in Brownfield.  My father and I were talking about the evils of alcohol abuse, a discussion not uncommon in Baptist homes.  Somewhere in that discussion I said that I didn’t believe in “drinking,” the generic term for alcohol abuse, because my mom and dad didn’t.  My sister, who had been listening all the while off to the side, said, “That’s not good enough.”  Her words burned their way through my conscience even before she could finish what she started.  But, she went on to say, “When you are a little child it’s o.k. to believe what you do simply because your parents do.  But, if your convictions never become your own, they won’t do you any good.”  I’m not sure where my sister came by all her wisdom at such an early age but I’ve never forgotten that conversation.  It has served me well many times over.  There has to come a time in life when you believe what you believe because you have chosen to believe it or, whatever else your beliefs are, they aren’t your own.  They’re only borrowed from someone else.  And, as my sister put it so succinctly, “that’s not good enough.”

This is a very special morning.  We have just baptized three fine young men.  This next Sunday will be special, too.  About four years ago I baptized my oldest son, Griffin, when he made his profession of faith.  This next Sunday, I will baptize my youngest son, Cameron.  This past week we sat around the family dining table and he shared with us how, one night a while back, he prayed to receive Jesus in his heart.  When I was talking with Taylor Harding this week, I told him that, because so many of these young men were being baptized at one time, I wanted to write a sermon just for them.  The truth is, they’ve written one for us in the way they have obediently followed Jesus in baptism.  What these young men have all given witness to this morning is that, their faith is becoming their own. 

Here they are, to a person, raised in homes where, until now, their parents “believed” for them.  Indeed, there are some faith traditions that teach that a parent can literally do that.  Yet, in our Baptist tradition, we believe there must come a time when every person, in their own conscience and soul, repents of sin and trusts Christ alone for salvation and is baptized in good conscience as the first act of obedience to the call of Christ on their life.  That is what these young men have given witness to in this place today.  They have taken the first major step toward making their faith their own.  My question to every other person inthis place today is whether you have done the same.

What do you believe about Jesus?  Why do you believe it?  Is what you believe about Jesus the cornerstone of everything else you believe or is it something to which you merely pay lip service from time to time?  Has what you believed about Jesus radically reorganized your life?  Is there anything about your faith that is so important to you that you would sacrifice everything, even your very life, if that is what it took to hold onto it?  What is there about your faith that is uniquely yours?

The Word this morning is from the Old Testament.  But, it is a word with deep connection to a New Testament faith.  Joshua, standing before the people of God, calls to them with words that are as powerful today as when he first spoke them.  “Now therefore revere the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.  Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Centuries before Jesus first walked on this earth and lived out his ministry, Joshua spoke words that are at the core of all it means to be Christian.  And, while there is more meaning here than time allows to be explored, Joshua mentions two fundamentals of making your faith your own that deserve our attention on this day we have witnessed the faith of these young men who were baptized.

First, making your faith your own means making a sincere choice.  Joshua said, “choose whom you will serve” and “serve him in sincerity.”  I simply want to ask everyone here this morning.  Have you made that choice? 

Jesus once said, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”  (Luke 9:23)  Becoming a Christian, a follower of Christ, means making a choice to take upon yourself the responsibility of following His lead in all of life, to be his servant and to obey his commandments.  That is not something you casually slip into like a comfortable old coat.  It is a decisive act of the human will to involve yourself intimately with Jesus whatever that may mean for you for the rest of your life.  Sincerity of choice leads to some kind of sincere way of living.

Every now and then, I’m encouraged when I preach a sermon and find out later that it actually helped someone.  You may recall that last week I shared with you about what to do when crisis comes into your life.  I challenged you to lean on God, lean on others and do the next thing.  Monday morning I got an email from Misty Rose.  Eddie had just left for five weeks of specialized training in his profession of fire fighting.  No sooner had he left town than Misty had a terrible crisis on her hands.  About 11:30 last Sunday night a toilet in Misty’s house backed up and caused some terrible damage.  That can be a real nightmare when you’re on your own with two babies in the house.  So, she said, “I took the initial steps of the sermon (and) followed all of them accordingly.”  It turns out that Jerry Wascom was God’s answer to her prayers.  (I did encourage Misty to call any time if she needed help while Eddie was out of town.  I also told her that, if it has anything to do with toilets, she should feel free to call Jerry first.) 

Anyway, Misty would certainly be the first to tell you that her crisis was not the most significant challenge she’s ever faced.  And, I honestly never dreamed my sermon would have such a practical application.  But, I was touched by her testimony, “I took the initial steps . . . and followed them accordingly.”

Faith happens when listening and hearing becomes following and doing.  I hope you’ve heard, more than once, that God loves you.  That God loves you so much he sent his son Jesus to die for your sins.  That, after Jesus died and was buried, God raised him from the dead.  And, I hope you’ve heard that, his death, burial and resurrection were meant for you personally and that, if you will turn to Jesus in faith he will forgive your sins and, when you die, raise you from the dead someday, too.  I hope you’ve heard that.  But, my question for you this morning is, having heard that, have you taken even the initial step toward the call of Jesus and followed him accordingly?  Do you have a faith that is your own?

Joshua said what Jesus would verify.  Making your faith your own means making a sincere choice.  Second, it means making that choice with “faithfulness.”  The problem with the faith of too many is that it is out of date.  It was sincere when they were young.  They really meant it then.  But, since that day, they’ve failed to bring their faith along with them as their life changed and grew.  They never read the Bible.  The never pray.  They never have sought to explore what believing in Jesus might mean in terms of how they relate to others.  Making your faith your own means following through on the choice once it is made.  Have you done that?  That’s the tough part, the follow through.

The Old Testament is full of stories of great people of faith that, having made the choice to serve the Lord, followed through.  One of my favorites has always been the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.  Do you remember it from the book of Daniel?  King Nebuchadnezzar had built a golden statue to his god and commanded all the people to bow down and worship it.  When Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego refused to worship his idol, the king threatened to throw them into a furnace.  Listen to what they said when threatened with their very lives, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to present a defense to you in this matter.  If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O King, let him deliver us.  But, if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up.”  (Daniel 3:16-18)  Whatever you want to call that, that’s follow through.  “No matter what it costs us,” they said, “we won’t sacrifice our faith even to protect our own lives.”

Now, on the surface, it may sound like these men were just saying “no” to the worship of false gods.  And, there is a part of faithfulness, of follow through, that demands that kind of scrutiny.  If you are going to follow Jesus, there are some things to which you must say no.  And, while I could give you a long list of what some of those things might be this morning, I think it’s more important to say that making your faith your own means coming to learn for yourself, as God reveals his truth to you in scripture, what things you will deny yourself and to which things you will not give yourself as you work out your own personal experience with holiness, with salvation.

But, let me also rush to say that, as much as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were saying “no” to a false god, they were more significantly saying “yes” to the one true God.  They knew what we sometimes forget, every time we say “yes” to one thing, whether we know it or not, we’ve said “no” to something else.  One f the greatest disciplines of Christian maturity is learning what to say yes to and to what we must say no.

I was raised, as were many of you, in a time when our Christian discipleship was too often defined to us in terms of what we didn’t do or shouldn’t do.  Sermons were filled with “don’t drink, dance, smoke or chew or run with girls who do.”  What I am now coming to learn is that being a Christian means at least as much about how to say yes to good as it does how to say no to evil.  While we should certainly discipline ourselves to refrain from behaviors that destroy our faith or our witness, God needs people in this world who will say yes to social justice and yes to proactive deeds of human kindness that help bring the mercy of God to bear in a world that is bleeding from the wounds of human injustice.

Years ago Cliff Temple became known for its fight to keep the sale of liquor out of this part of the city under the leadership of Wallace Bassett.  And, to this day, there is no way of knowing what kind of positive impact it has had on this community not to have a liquor store or beer hall on every corner.  What Cliff Temple did then was good.  But, for us, it’s not good enough.  The question for this Cliff Temple is what proactive steps we will take now to bring about God’s justice and his kingdom good in this place.  The faith of our forefathers was good.  For us, it’s not good enough.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were baptized by fire.  They weren’t sure of what would happen to them when they took their stand.  All they knew is that they would take it.  Whatever else their faith was, it was so personally their own that not even the threat of death could take it away from them.  And, when it was all said and done, their faith was good enough.  These young men were baptized by water this morning, giving witness to the baptism of the Holy Spirit that had already taken place in their hearts.  They have taken the initial steps.  Now it ours to help them take the next step and the next toward making their faith their own so that, no matter what may ever come their way, their faith will be good enough because it will be their own.