Life's A Choice
090808 Life’s a Choice
Tim Franklin
Introduction
· Deuteronomy 30:19-20 I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; 20 that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them." NKJV
· Moses sets before the people a choice and encourages them to choose life.
o Isn’t it interesting that the very people that God delivered out of the bondage of the Egyptians spent the next 40 years dying in the Wilderness?
o Isn’t it interesting that the God made a spectacle out of Egypt by allowing them to be destroyed by mere Israelite slaves and then those freed men died in the Wilderness?
o Isn’t it astonishing that the God who delivered the children of Israel out of the hands of the Egyptians was unable to get Egypt out of them?
· Life is made up of a series of choices. And we get Egypt out of us by make right choices. And God is giving us the opportunity to choose life today. The Apostle Paul said it this way: THE MESSAGE, Rom 12:2Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
· How do I renew my mind?
1. Make a Choice
A. Choose life that you may live well.
i. Caleb ministered this pasted Wednesday on aligning our hearts with God.
a. Deuteronomy 5:29 Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever! NKJV
b. We must meditate on the fact that God wants it to be well with us and our children. I really helps, knowing that God is for us and not against us.
ii. God wants us to have a heart in us that would fear and obey Him. This fear is not what most of us think fear is. It is not a fear of a terrorist it is a fear of not having His blessing if we choose not to follow him or his ways. Ie. Kelly and I have a fear of ‘not tithing’. It is not a fear of God being mean to us it is a fear of stepping out from under His goodness.
B. God chose to deliver the people of Israel out of Egyptian bondage.
i. God chose to deliver us out of bondage to sin.
ii. Choice is something that He values. He wants us to choose to love Him. I.e. As a parent you know when your children obey out of goodness or out of coercion or your position of authority. You want them to choose to love you. When you hold their heart, they will choose to hold yours.
iii. Choice is a powerful opportunity given to us by God.
a. Choose wisely and you live. Choose foolishly and you die.
b. Choose wisely and you experience life and choose foolishly you experience death.
C. Renewing your mind begins with you making a choice.
i. When you chose to make Jesus Lord of your life, you gave up your rights to him. You are now a subject of His Kingdom. His Kingdom is not of this world, yet. It is governed by different laws, different culture, different perspective.
a. Ephesians 4:2 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, NKJV
b. Colossians 3:10 put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, NKJV To renew means that you are giving a new look to something.
ii. When you get saved you must immediately begin to learn the ways of His Kingdom, His Kingdom laws, and His Kingdom culture.
a. That means you must enroll in the school of the Word.
b. And you must graduate Bible college! Not a literal Bible college but you must know His Word if you are to live. John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. NKJV Jesus was the first to use Life in the Word, not Joyce Myers.
2. Make a Change
A. When you choose life you choose change. Put on some new clothes. If you are going to put something on you have to take something off and that my friends is--change.
i. Col 3:8-11 But you know better now, so make sure it's all gone for good: bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity, dirty talk. Don't lie to one another. You're done with that old life. It's like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you've stripped off and put in the fire. 10 Now you're dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete… So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. 13 Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. 14 And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it. THE MESSAGE
ii. I.e. Cable program--What not to Wear. These is a program about change! Time for new garments!
a. People are given an opportunity to change.
b. They are allowed to see what they really look like.
c. In order to change they must give up their old wardrobe.
d. They must be willing to trust others to help.
e. They have to put on new garments.
B. People do not change, until the pain of not changing, is greater than the pain of change itself.
i. We call this hitting the bottom. And the bottom is different for everyone.
a. The quicker you are able to humble yourself the quicker you change.
b. Some people’s pride and stubbornness will take them deeper into the pain of change process.
ii. When you get saved go as fast as you can to adopt the Kingdom ways. You are already motivated. You are already entering into the change process. Don’t stop, don’t look back—keep on changing.
C. When you choose life, you choose to change.
i. Everything about us was death before or at least it ended in death.
ii. The mind must be renewed. Joshua 1:8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. NKJV
(i) Meditate—night and day—giving yourself to God.
(ii) study—2 Tim 2:15 study to show yourself approved.
(iii)Speak—confess openly who you are and speak it often to one another.
iii. We must…
a. Change our thoughts of God--find out who He is (healer, savior, deliverer), what are His emotions.
b. Change our thoughts of ourselves--I must see me as God sees me.
c. Change our thoughts of others—I must see others as God sees them.
iv. When we chose life, life has a whole new operating system that must be installed and we are constantly making upgrades/update to improve life performance.
v. Every update…makes a difference.
3. Make a Difference
A. Choose Life That You May Live Well
i. Difference—Webster 1828, “The quality which distinguishes one thing from another.”
a. I am different from the world.
b. I am fearfully and wonderfully made-distinct from all others.
c. That distinction makes me unique, an original not a copy, and that makes me valuable. I therefore I have significance.
ii. When I choose life I am blessed. Dt. 28:1:ff. When I am blessed, I live well.
a. THE MESSAGE, Rom 12:2Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
B. Choose Life That You May Love Well
i. When my issues are dealt with, I can love well.
a. You can’t love your spouse/family if you are selfish.
b. You can’t love your spouse/family if you are angry.
ii. We spend our lives as believers becoming like Him.
a. Change takes time.
b. Deep change often takes more time.
iii. When you choose life, you are able to give life and that will make a difference in many people’s lives.
a. Take your waitress, for example, she/he is there to serve you. What kind of difference will your kind words, encouragement and ‘tip’ mean to them.
b. Kevin McAllister in Home Alone 2 made a difference in the bird ladies life:
Bird Lady: The man I loved fell out of love with me. That broke my heart. When the chance to be loved came along again, I ran away from it. I stopped trusting people.
Kevin McCallister: No offense, but that seems like sort of a dumb thing to do.
Bird Lady: I was afraid of getting my heart broken again. Sometimes you can trust a person, and then, when things are down, they forget about you.
Kevin McCallister: Maybe they're just too busy. Maybe they don't forget about you, but they forget to remember you. People don't mean to forget. My grandfather says if my head wasn't screwed on, I'd leave it on the school bus.
Bird Lady: I'm just afraid if I do trust someone, I'll get my heart broken.
Kevin McCallister: I understand. I had a nice pair of Rollerblades. I was afraid to wreck them, so I kept them in a box. Do you know what happened? I outgrew them. I never wore them outside. Only in my room a few times.
Bird Lady: A person's heart and feelings are very different than skates.
Kevin McCallister: They're kind of the same thing. If you won't use your heart, who cares if it gets broken? If you just keep it to yourself, maybe it'll be like my Rollerblades. When you do decide to try it, it won't be any good. You should take a chance. Got nothing to lose.
Bird Lady: Little truth in there somewhere.
Kevin McCallister: I think so. Your heart might still be broken, but it isn't gone. If it was gone, you wouldn't be so nice.
Bird Lady: Thank you. Do you know it's been a couple of years since I've talked to anybody?
Kevin McCallister: That's okay. You're good at it. You're not boring. You don't mumble or spit. You should do it more often. Just wear an outfit with no pigeon poop on it.
Bird Lady: I have been working very hard at keeping people away. I always think I'll have a lot of fun if I'm alone... but when I'm alone, it's not fun.
Kevin McCallister: I don't care how much people bug me, I'd rather be with someone than alone.
iv. If you choose life, you will make changes and those changes will touch generations starting with your children. Deuteronomy 30:19-20 I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; 20 that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them." NKJV
C. Live well, love well, and do both a long time.
Conclusion:
· Rom 12:2 In other words, do not let yourselves be conformed to the standards of the ‘olam hazeh. Instead, keep letting yourselves be transformed by the renewing of your minds; so that you will know what God wants and will agree that what he wants is good, satisfying and able to succeed. CJB-Complete Jewish Bible.
· First step today must be a step in the right direction. Invitation to make Jesus Lord of your life.
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