What's the real question?

Choices.  Let's suppose I put two briefcases in front of someone.  Both contain my own money which I want to give away.  One of the cases has one hundred dollars in it.  The other case has one million dollars in it.  I then tell the person that they can choose freely which one they want and it's theirs without condition.  They look at me bewildered but I assure them I'm telling the truth.  Which one would they choose?  This is not a trick question.

I think you will agree everybody in this situation, having complete freedom, would choose the briefcase with one million dollars in it.  The choice is so obvious it is almost absurd.  No one would need to force or compel them to choose that case because the value of one million dollars is so much greater than one hundred dollars that the choice is irresistible even though the person had complete freedom to choose either case.  The issue guiding the person's decision is not whether the person has free will to choose but whether the person can correctly value the contents of each briefcase.

Now I put two different options in front of someone.  They can choose self or choose Christ.  They can live their life and do whatever they want to do or they can live their life and do whatever Christ wants them to do.  But here is what is at stake: if they choose self, they get to do whatever they want in this life but forfeit an eternity with Christ in the next.  If they choose Christ, they get to do whatever Christ wants in this life and get an eternity with Christ in the next.  Which one would they choose?

The same question underlies this choice as with the choice of briefcases.  It's not a question of whether the person has free will (it never has been).  It's a question of does the person correctly value the options?  Does the person understand the value of Christ?  The unbelieving world is unbelieving precisely because they do not and so pursuing their own ambitions and catering to themselves is always more valuable to them than a relationship with Christ.  Yet when someone actually sees the "surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus" (Phil 3:8)--just like the person who sees the value of the million dollars--they will always choose Christ and they will do so without compromising their free will.

Once you've gotten this far then we can move to the next question, which is how does someone come to see the surpassing value of knowing Christ and why do so many people not see?

7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. Philippians 3:7-9