God Has To Win Our Choices Series

Sermon Title GOD HAS TO WIN OUR CHOICES

Introduction College and profession football has begun. Now, the announcers for these early season games don’t talk about how this game is a must win for one of those two teams. But later, in the season, those announcers will be begin saying that if one team wants to make it to the playoffs or to a bowl, this game is a must win.

And that made me think, there are some must wins in my life that God must get. And so, over the next four weeks, I want to share with you four must wins that God must have in my life. We will start with the first one today. God must win our choices.

It is hard to put a number on the number of choices that we make each day. But researchers will always try, and one such group at Cornell University studied food and the number of choices that we make concerning food each day. They concluded that we make about 227 choices about food each day.

If that is true, then the number of total other choices that we make in a day must be in the thousands. I actually saw two reports that quoted 35,000 as that magic number of choices we make each day, but they gave no supporting evidence as to how they got to that number. I don’t know if they just pulled it out of the air.

But here is the point that I want to make, it doesn’t matter if it is 1,000 choices a day or 35,000 choices a day. At the end of the day, what matters is that God won those choices that He needed to win in my life today. When it came to decisions about me and God today, did He win or did the world win? When it came to decisions about me and God did He win or did my flesh win? When it came to decisions about me and God did He win or did the devil win?

So, I set out looking for someone in the Bible who I knew it can be said about him or her that in their life God won the daily choices.

And I want to see what made that person the Godly person they became; what made that person chose God over everything else, so I can model that in my own life.

So, turn with me to the Book of Hebrews Chapter 11 beginning with verse 24 and let’s discover why it can be said in Moses’ life that God won. Moses chose Godly choses over other choices in his life.

Scripture

Hebrews 11:24-28 (NKJV)

24 By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,

25 choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin,

26 esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.

27 By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible.

28 By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them.

1st point:

GODLY CHOICES WON OUT IN MOSES’ LIFE BECAUSE HE DIDN’T LISTEN TO THE DISTRACTIONS THAT RISE UP TO PREVENT US FROM MAKING THOSE GODLY CHOICES.

25 choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin,

In verse 25, we are told that the Godly choice was to suffer affliction with the people of God, and the distraction is the passing pleasure of sin.

In Luke 10, we are told the story about Mary and Martha. Mary made the Godly choice by sitting at the Lord’s feet and listening to what He said, but Martha was distracted by her many task.

In Matthew 14, we are told that Peter asked the Lord if he could join Him on the water, a very godly choice. But the Scripture says that that before Peter got to the Lord, he saw the wind, a distraction and began to sink.

The thing that I want to make you aware of whenever we face a decision for God, there is always some distraction that rises up that tries to prevent us from making that Godly choice.

I have seen that over and over in my life. Anne will sit down to start praying and as soon as she does either the phone rings, or I call out from another room asking her a question interrupting her time with God.

I will sit down to read my Bible, and out of nowhere I will get tired and need to take a nap.