This I Believe: I Have Chosen To Be A Sinner Series

OPEN: (We opened with a Dorito’s commercial that has Eve attempting to share the forbidden fruit with Adam and he rejects her offer – holding up a Dorito’s Bag and saying “I’m good.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHSjpezHHcw)

Now, I liked that.

Not only was it humorous… but it a great point.

The point?

Adam and Eve had a choice.

They didn’t have to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. But God gave them ability to make that choice if they wanted to.

They had a choice.

Granted, there weren’t any Doritos to eat in the Garden but there were plenty of other really good things to eat. Genesis 2:9 says “the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground— trees that were PLEASING to the eye and GOOD for food."

So, it wasn’t like they were hungry, or that there wasn’t anything as good. God had given them the gift of a wonderful garden filled with delicious food.

But the Garden and its fruit weren’t the only gifts God supplied to them when He created them. God also gave Adam and Eve something more precious and valuable. God gave them the gift of “Freedom to Choose”.

Adam and Eve could choose to do good.

Or they could choose to do evil.

God didn’t make them to be like dumb cattle out in the field. He didn’t make them robots who were programmed to act and speak and think in a given way. God essentially made them equal partners in this new world He’d created, and in order to prepare them for that task, He trusted them with a Free Will. A free will that made it possible for them to make good choices… or bad.

The Bible repeatedly stresses that God has given all of us a free will. We ALL have been allowed by God can make free choices. But the Bible also repeatedly stresses the fact that God expects us to choose wisely.

After the Israelites had taken the Promised Land, Joshua challenged them with these words:

“… CHOOSE for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served 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." Joshua 24:15

In other words: make a choice! But make the right choice.

Later in Israel’s history, the prophet Elijah stood before a disobedient nation and made a similar challenge: "How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him." 1 Kings 18:21a

In other words: make a choice! But make the right choice.

And Jesus taught "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. Matthew 6:24

MAKE A CHOICE!

God gave Adam and Eve a Free Will.

They were allowed to make their own choices because you can’t have a Free Will if you’re not free to make any choices.

So God gave us all a Free will. He gave us the right to choose. But He repeatedly tells us: there’s a lot riding on these free choices of ours.

God told Adam and Eve: “You are FREE to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it YOU WILL SURELY DIE." Genesis 2:16b-17

And - as Israel was preparing to enter the Promised Land, God said:

“This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live” Deuteronomy 30:19

Make a choice!… but make the right choice!!!

Romans tells us the same thing: “now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

God repeatedly declares: what you choose determines what will happen in your life. You can choose that which leads to life - or that which leads to death… SO choose wisely.

Now, there’s a glitch in this concept of Free Will.

There are people who get all tied up in their theologies and ultimately reject this concept we have free will. And both base their theologies on Romans 3:23 that says “ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”

The first group are called Calvinists. They believe in something called predestination. Predestination basically maintains that: the choice has already been made for you. It’s already been decided that you’re going to heaven… or Hell. And there’s no choice you can make in this life that will change that.