The Choices We Make

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Good morning.

It's good that we have chosen to be here this morning to worship God. And we didn't plan for that, but we remember that song, there's power in the blood. We made a choice, didn't we? We chose to be here. We made a choice to be here.

I chose, I was telling people, I chose not to take my usual route. I chose to avoid the king's mountain road because it has valleys and it's shaded. And I was cautious about ice. So I chose to use to come all the way out to route 44 and come down. And this morning we talk about some choices, choices that we made.

You chose this morning to get out of bed eventually. You chose about breakfast, what to eat or what not to eat or whether to eat, what to drink or what not to drink. We have choices about food. We have choices about this rather big sweater, choices about clothes. We spend a lot of our time making choices.

Choices great and small. What will we wear out or in? Will we shop? Will we shop online? Or will we shop in person?

Will we work hard at our job? Or won't we, when we are not at our paid job? How will we spend our time? How will we spend our free time? We are commanded, of course, to in the King James, new King James, to redeem the time.

The english standard says, make the best use of the time. We face many choices, each with consequences. Some choices have short term consequences. I almost said, what's having your pepperoni pizza? What to have on your pizza has some consequences, perhaps indigestion and some heart disease further down the line.

But other choices we can make or not make will impact us for eternity. We'll turn over to Luke, chapter 14.

Luke, chapter 14. We could spend. Of course, this is a huge kind of subject. We could talk for many hours and days about making choices. But I want to present some of the choices that some of the basic choices that we make, and our first choice that we're going to examine here actually has to do with a little bit what we were talking about in Bible study, about people who choose to indulge themselves or at least promote themselves.

So Luke chapter 14, verse seven says, so he Jesus told a parable to those who were invited, when he noted how they chose the best places, saying to them, when you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place, lest one more honorable than you be invited by him. And he who invited you and him come and say to you, give place to this man. And then you begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you were invited, go and sit down in the lowest place. So that when he who invited you comes, he may say to you, friend, come up higher.

Go up higher. Then you will have glory in the presence of all those who sit at the table with you. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. This kind of teaching is found in many different parts of the scripture. But what do we have?

Recently, the Golden Globe awards and a lot of talk was made about, well, look at the faces Taylor Swift was making and such. Well, I just pick on her because everybody knows who she is these days. But if you ever go to an award show or a professional sporting event, you'll probably see people who think pretty highly of themselves. They think pretty highly of themselves. They're stuck on themselves.

They think they're better than others. I can tell you, and I'm not picking anyone in particular, but through different years and different classes, yeah, I can tell you that there's an ego involved with most. I imagine it's true of most schools, with most Kent state gymnasts, that they act like you're doing you a favor when they sign your poster, because they're used to performing. They're used to showing off in front of people. And some doctors and medical people do this as well, of course.

Well, I'm a doctor now. I'm not that kind of doctor, but I'm a doctor, therefore you should do whatever I say. Ray Stevens had a song about that years back when they tell people, strip down naked, boy. Cough and sneeze, jump up on that table on your hands and knees. And so we do, it, essentially, is what the song says, because you do everything the doctor tells you.

Who do you think they are? Well, that's what the song says. But you hear that? We live in a classless society. We talked about that this morning.

We don't. There is a pecking order in our society now. It's forbidden, by the way, by the US Constitution. The United States Constitution is not allowed to recognize titles of nobility. So barons, earls, dukes, vicounts, looks like this count.

But all that means nothing here, sir. He's an actor. But Sir Anthony Hopkins is a knight. He was knighted. But his, sir, his title means nothing to the state of.

He usually is acting in California. So it means nothing to California and it means nothing to the US government. So we say, we don't have classes here. We live in a classful society. Well, that's not quite true.

There is a pecking order in our society. And what do we often do? Well, we look at what the next person has or doesn't have. We do what Paul tells us not to do. In two corinthians, chapter ten, verse twelve, we compare ourselves with ourselves.

We compare ourselves among ourselves. Well, indeed, I'm better than this person over here. It is not wise to choose to think better of ourselves than others. And we've read that, I'm sure I've probably read to you before. But the parable of the Pharisee and the publican, or the tax collector, of course, makes this point.

We won't have time to read it this morning. But what are we told? The Pharisee looked upon him. He prized himself, and he looked on others with contempt, or he despised others, and thank God that he was not like this other man. Over here, we are told repeatedly we can choose how to think of ourselves.

Let's turn over to Romans, though, for a shorter version of that same teaching. Again, that in and of itself could be a lesson. But Romans, chapter twelve, verse, verse three. Romans twelve, three. He says, for I say.

Paul says, my inspiration, he says, for I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you. Not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly. As God has dealt to each one a measure of faith, we must choose to avoid pride and humbly submit to God. We've been studying Daniel. Consider Nebuchadnezzar, when he admired chapter four, the whole chapter four of Daniel.

He admired all the things he had been built. Look at Babylon. And he says, look at all the city I built for my magnificence and my glory. And we all know what happened to him. God humbled him rather dramatically.

He ate grass like an ox for seven years. We must not think of ourselves more right, more highly than we ought to think. But, of course, one of the ways that people often do that is you surround yourself with people who tell you what you want to hear. Which takes us to our next point. Turn over, please.

To proverbs, chapter twelve.

We must choose to think of ourselves realistically, is the way I like to put it, to think of ourselves realistically. When we compare what we are to what and who God is, we should in fact be humble. If we were for us, ourselves, we are going to be humble that way. But too many people don't. Too many people, they think of themselves more highly than they ought to think.

And they surround themselves with people who flatter them, people who tell them what they want to hear. So we need to heed, among other passages, of course, what we see here in proverbs, chapter twelve, verse 26, it says, the righteous should choose his friends carefully, for the way of the wicked leads them astray. Or one is righteous to guide to his neighbor in the ESV, believe us. Choose our friends carefully.

Choose our friends care. Now, we get on kids a lot for this. We had posters like this up in school that usually have a cartoon character like Garfield or something on it says, choose your friends wisely. So we get on kids about this all the time. But this applies whether you're eight years old or whether you're 108.

Choose your friends wisely. Your friends can have a drastic impact on you. Now, we're supposed to be, we shouldn't be friendly towards anyone because we should be suspicious of everything. No, we must be polite and friendly, loving and generous to all, as Jesus was. But Jesus, what did he do before he chose his disciples?

He prayed like Jesus. We must carefully choose our friends, our closest friends, especially our closest associates. We must choose people who will not put stumbling blocks in our way. In other words, they will not make it harder for us to be faithful to God, who will not encourage or attempt to lead us away from God.

But here's a non threatening sort of example of that. And of course, around here, I suppose in Chardonna, that would have that kind of effect, but it certainly does in southeast Ohio. You might have garden clubs here. Somebody mentioned they were gardeners, some of the women nearby, it was in a village. Some women started a small garden club to put to hang planters along the streets, and they would meet.

This wasn't meeting a group that had a lot of meetings. They met only three or four times a year, and they held a potluck and they planned their projects for the next season. Well, this is a village, and it's a peaceful village. So what happens? Retirees move there.

Several well to do retirees moved into the village and joined the group, and the locals appreciated the money the retirees brought to the group. Look at the projects we can do now. But you might imagine things changed. It wasn't long until the retirees decided that the meetings, we didn't plan that, but we mentioned that this morning. The meetings should be moved to the country club so they could have an expensive fancy lunch, which many of the original members could not hope to afford.

And the group, the founders, if you will, they wanted the informal setting of the potluck where they were comfortable, and so they associated with people, but they led them in a direction. They took the association, the gardening club, if you want, in a direction they hadn't intended to go and say, okay, well, start your own club, which is what they probably did. But when it comes to spiritual matters, choosing the wrong friends can lead to some very serious problems. Turn over to, you've probably thought of this one, but turn over to one corinthians, chapter 15. While you're turning there, think of some examples from history of people who may not have been wrong initially, if you will, but they chose the wrong friends, and choosing the wrong friends put them in very serious trouble.

Think of, for example, from american history. President Ulysses S. Grant Miles counts an honest man, but he chose his friends very, very poorly. As a result, his presidency was racked by corruption. When he became president after the civil war, his presidency was racked by corruption, and then later on, his family was bankrupted.

After the war, he chose the wrong friends, and it cost him a lot physically. Look in the Bible. Look at King Rayabelle. He listened to the wrong people, and what did it do? It cost him his kingdom.

That's first kings, chapter, chapter eleven, chapter twelve. It cost him his kingdom. He listened to the wrong advice. And how many other kings after him accumulated? People who told them what prophets, told them what they wanted to hear, didn't tell them what they needed to hear about reforming their lives.

So one corinthians, chapter 13, verse 32. This is one of those, this is one of those verses that, if you will, improves quite a bit when you don't. No disrespect. Attended to the. It's been very valuable.

But King James Version, new King James says, do not be deceived. Evil company corrupts good habits. Now the King James is in the old King James says evil companions ruin good manners or something like mean. It makes it sound like don't put your elbows on the know. Make sure that you use the right number of fingers when you're grasping the teacup.

We're not talking about table manners here. We're talking about your habits. Or the english standard version says, do not be deceived. Bad company ruins good morals. So we're not talking about get your elbows off the table or whether or not you wash your hands after you eat and everything else.

We're talking here about very serious, moral overarching spiritual issues. Your friends can lead you into things a whole lot more serious than using the wrong fork dinner. They can lead you into sin, and they can lead you into eventually, of course, they can lead you into damnation.

So that's number two. Number one, don't choose to think of yourself realistically. Choose to think of yourself humbly. The second point, again, is choose your friends wisely. That's another way, of course, that again, those two are often mutually reinforcing.

People choose bad friends who reinforce their bad habits and bad morals and make them feel good about doing bad, so to speak. But the most fundamental choice of all is a choice that was actually asked by a pagan in the Bible. Turn to Matthew, chapter 27. Matthew, chapter 27. Our circumstance, our immediate circumstance is very different.

But fundamentally we have the same question in front of us that Pontius Pilate asks. Pontius Pilate asks, here, Matthew 27 22 says, pilate said to them, what then shall I do with Jesus, who is called Christ?

I don't think it's in this book. I know it's in some books. There's a song about that. What will you do with know? I don't know how to sing it, to be honest, but that's the question we face.

What will we do with Jesus? Hopefully we've all heard this passage. Turn over to Joshua, chapter 24. We have a fundamental choice of deciding what we're going to do with Jesus. God has given us, as we call it, free will.

He's given us that choice to choose to serve God, to serve Christ, to accept Jesus as Lord and savior or not. Joshua, chapter 24. Joshua, chapter 24. Since I finally get there, verse 15 says, and if it seems evil to you, Joshua here says, to serve the Lord. Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served over the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.

But as for me, in my house, we will serve the Lord. Remember, Moses had left them with that choice. Toward the end of the book of deuteronomy, he says, I set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. And Moses appealed to them. And he said, therefore choose life, that you and your descendants might live.

We have choices, and that's the most fundamental and most important choice. Much more important than are we going to stop at McDonald's or Wendy's on the way home? This choice has eternal consequences. Do you know that? God makes choices, too.

Turn over to first kings, chapter eleven. You see, God makes choices. How does God choose? On what basis does God make choices? Where you're turning, I think about on what basis do we often make choices?

Well, let's see. I'll pick this sweater because I like the pattern. Actually, kind of don't. Somebody bought it for me. But I'll buy this sweater because I like the pattern.

I'll choose to go to this school or that school because I'll pick on you. I choose to root for Alabama because I was raised there. I choose to root for Kent State because that's where I went to school. You get that? You make choices and you make choices sometimes based on what appearance, based on where you grew up.

What basis does God make choices? First kings, chapter eleven, verse 33.

Verse 34. This is in the middle of God's sadly concluding about Solomon. He was not faithful. And he says, however, I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand because I have made him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of my servant David, whom I chose. In other words, God chose who?

He chose David. So whom I chose, why? He says, why? Right here. Because he kept my commandments and my statutes.

God chose David. Now, did David do it perfectly? We know the answer to that. No, he didn't. But David did his best, as we would say down south, his level best.

He did his level best. He did his best to follow after God. David was blessed for his choice and his family was blessed. You said, okay, that's the Old Testament. Are things different today?

Turn to second Thessalonians. Second Thessalonians. Now this. We talk about God's choices while you're turning there. When you talk about God's choices in the New Testament, there's a lot of confusion about that.

There are a lot of people who will tell you that God chooses us and there's nothing we can do about it. That was John Calvin right there, that God chooses us. There's nothing we can do about it. So why bother making any effort? That's not what the Bible teaches.

That's a long story, but it's not what the Bible teaches. But let's start. Second Thessalonians, chapter two, verse 13. Verse 13. He says, but we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the spirit and belief in the truth, to which he called you by our gospel for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you are taught, whether by word or by our epistle.

So on what basis does God choose people? The same basis he chose David. It's based on a person's choice. To what? Verse 15.

Stand fast and hold the traditions which we are taught. In other words, to go back and use the language that he used with David. Fear God and keep his commandments. It's not based on a person's wealth, health, good looks, lack of good looks, education, race, social status, number of I'll pick on people. I heard people mentioning social media.

I'm not on it. Number of Facebook followers, number of pictures uploaded, Instagram, size of one's bank account, which county in Ohio you choose to live in, et cetera, et cetera. It's based on a person's choice to fear God and obey the gospel. And he said, well, God chose us. Well, does that mean we don't have to do anything?

If that's true, why did Paul just write? The Thessalonians hold fast to traditions. In other words, they needed to hold fast to traditions. God knows who is going to follow him. He doesn't make that choice for you.

We just talked about that. It's up to us to choose, but God chooses those who are going to follow him. Acts, chapter ten, verse 34. It says here, it says, peter opened his mouth and said, in truth, I perceive that God shows no partiality. That's acts 1034.

God is no respecter of persons. In the king James, God shows no partiality. But in every nation, anyone or whoever fears him and works righteousness, or whoever does what is right is accepted by him. God hasn't changed. God chooses those who choose him.

Now, I'm not a big fan of a lot of these so called spiritual scriptural signs because some of them tend to boil very complicated, very important truths down to just sort of phrases, empty phrases and plastics. But one of the best ones I've seen was, if you were close to God once and you're not now, who moved?

God we can read does not change. If you were close to God once and you're not anymore, God didn't move. You're the one who moved. And that has, as we said, consequences. What kind of consequences?

Turn over a couple more passages here to Isaiah, chapter 66. Actually, we're going to have, like, four different references here. But the first one here is Isaiah. Isaiah 66.

God does not enjoy. Of course, the scripture makes that clear. God does not enjoy inflicting punishment, but he will choose to do so because he is God. He is love. We sang that.

But he is also holy, and as such, he must, and he will punish sin. So Isaiah 66 four says here, God says, so I will choose their delusions and bring their fears on them. Why? Because when I called, no one else answered, or no one answered. When I spoke, they did not hear.

But they did evil before my eyes, and they chose that of which I do not delight. So they chose, it's sort of the word they, but that's what it's talking about. The people of Judah, in this case, they chose to disobey God. They chose to do and live in the ways that are wicked, that are not according to the word of God.

And a lot of people think, well, we do have that one. We do sing occasionally, I know, because we have the same songbook. 632, time enough. Yes, that essentially, well, I'll live the way we talk about that Bible, say, I'll live the way I want to live for now and then some future time when I'm older, when things get rough, then I'll choose the heavenly way. The Bible has an answer for things, of course, but it has a direct answer for that.

Turn to proverbs, chapter one. Now, a lot of people think that, well, I can sort of have cruise control in our cars that I never use, but we have cruise control in our cars. We can just sort of go through life on spiritual cruise control and never have to pay attention to our relationship with God. And, well, then when times get tough, then all of a sudden we can grab the wheel, so to speak, and get ourselves back on course. That doesn't work that way.

Proverbs 127. God here, through Solomon's wisdom, says, when your terror comes like a storm and your destruction comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you, then they will call on me, on God and God's wisdom, that is. But I will not answer. They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. Why?

Verse 29. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. We're familiar with the probably most famous passage in proverbs one seven. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom or the beginning of knowledge. There are a couple of similar ones.

You need to choose that. And that's basically the first ten chapters of proverbs telling you that over and over again. Choose wisdom, get wisdom, seek wisdom. Choose wisdom over foolishness. But back here, verse 29.

They hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would have none of my counsel. Verse 30. And despised my every rebuke. Therefore, they shall eat the fruit of their own way and be filled to the full with their own fancies, for the turning away of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them.

But whoever listens to me will dwell safely and will be secure without fear of evil.

So they made their choice. We have a saying down south and up here. You made your bed, now lie in it. Essentially is what this almost boils down to, that you have sinned, or as the Bible puts it, you've sown the wind, you're going to reap the whirlwind that do not count on, as I said, God is not a safety net, so to speak, that all of a sudden you just sort of roll him out, so to speak, when you think that there's going to be a risk involved. God needs to be your master.

You need to choose to make God and keep God as your lord and savior. If he's always your lord and savior, then of course, yes, God is love, and he cares for you. But too many people see him as a last ditch safety net that, well, I can choose to follow him at any time. Psalm 632, some future time when I am old or, well, when the wolf is howling at the proverbial door, well, you may not get that chance. You may not get that chance.

One more reference. Turn to first Peter, chapter four. First Peter, chapter four.

Say, okay, well, obviously, people of the world, people who don't even claim to worship God, who don't even claim to follow Christ, that's who the Bible's talking about, right? As long as we, a lot of people believe this, as long as people have. They call themselves christians, they're good. I've seen the commercials that are airing during the news up here. They have.

What was it? I forget what. It's Franklin Graham, I believe Billy Graham's son, that says, oh, you need to choose Jesus. So pray this prayer with me. And then he leads you right there in prayer.

Right there. Tv commercial in the middle of 19 news leads you right there in prayer. And then he has a little phone number at the bottom. Now, if you pray that prayer, then give this phone number a call. Well, you want to bet I haven't done it?

Of course. Well, you want to bet he's going to ask you for money, but that's not the way it works. That okay, I prayed the prayer. I'm good. One Peter, chapter four, verse 17 says, for time has come for judgment to begin at the house or the household of God.

In other words, people who call themselves christians, or maybe of course, have been christians, will be judged. And if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? Now we're talking about people of the world. What will be the end of those who have never made any attempt to follow the gospel of God. But notice again, we don't get out of it, so to speak.

It begins with us first and keep going. The next verse. Now, if the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear? Now we know the answer to that. The Bible makes it clear what the answer to that is.

They have no hope. We must choose. Every day we make choices. We must choose to keep the commandments of God, to keep the commandments of Christ, to keep the word of God. Each one of us every day actually must answer the same question that Pilate asked.

What are you? What am I? What are we going to do with Jesus today? What are we going to do with Jesus today? Are we going to live for him or not?

Are we going to follow him or not? We're going to follow his example or not? Are we going to live in the way he's commanded? Or are we going to live in a way that would bring shame and reproach upon his name? Our choice on this matter has eternal consequences.

So let's then choose to think of ourselves realistically, to have a humble attitude, to know that, to choose to acknowledge that we are flawed, we are sinners, we need help. Let's choose to have the right friends, friends who are going to help us and encourage us to have the right view of ourselves and encourage us to follow after Christ. And finally, let's choose. And by the way, that's an individual choice. Each one of us must choose to follow Jesus.

That's another one. We do say, I have decided to follow Jesus. Have you decided to follow Jesus? You say, okay, yes, you have. If you need to decide to follow Jesus, how do you do that?

Well, you hear and believe that he is the Christ, the son of the living God. Then you're willing to confess your faith in him before men, and you're willing to repent of your sins and put him on a baptism. You say, well, I've done that. I've made that choice. But each and every day are you deciding to follow Jesus?

Remember, that's an individual choice. Paul tells us in Romans, each one of us will give an account of himself or herself to God. There are some groups, like Kirtland, Ohio, like the Mormons, who believe that you can be baptized for somebody else. Doesn't work that way. That well.

The number of people I've heard say this, well, my grandfather was a preacher and his father and my father was a preacher. Well, that's wonderful. Hopefully you've got some wonderful spiritual instruction from them. But guess what? Your grandfather accounts for whom to God himself.

Your father accounts for whom to God himself. Yes, you might account for the way he trained you up, but ultimately who answers for you to God? You do. So it's an individual.

So I leave you with that thought. What choices are you making today? Are you going to make the biggest right choice to decide to follow Jesus or not follow Jesus? If you've decided to follow Jesus, what do you need to do to make that happen? Do you need to put him on a baptism?

We'll be willing to help you with that. If you have put him on a baptism but you're now making wrong choices, then we would certainly be willing to pray with you and for you and help you to get back to making the right choices. If there's any need you have, make it known as we stand the sing.

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