Our Choices Matter

G. To say that God predetermined whether or not we would go to heaven or hell means that he would have to predetermine every choice that we make in life, and there are some choices that I have made that I know that God had nothing to do with!

H. Another reason that I can’t buy predestination is it is not consistent with the rest of the bible. We can’t just look at a verse or two and say because this says this its the way it is. We have to look at all that the bible says and draw our conclusions from the whole, and not from isolated verses

I. The next reason that I can’t buy that is that I am a Father, and there is no way that I could bring a children into this world and say you will spend eternity in paradise, and you will spend eternity in torment, and you will spend eternity in heaven, and you will spend eternity in hell. No way!

J. And the bible says that God loves us more than we can even understand loving someone, so I don’t buy that he would create people for the purpose of sending them to Hell.

K. Another reason that I don’t buy it is a combination of the first two. If God decided what our lives were going to be before we were ever born, and wrote a script for our lives, then our choices in life don’t matter. And I know that our choices do matter, because in the most important area of our existence God makes it clear that we choose our destiny.

IV. I am going to look at some places in the bible that fit into three time frames, that cover the way that God has related to humans since the beginning of time.

A. The first is in the very beginning, the first accounts of how God related to human beings.

B. God created Adam and Eve, he put them in a garden, gave them everything they could want, and he gave them a choice. He said you can eat the fruit off of every tree in this garden but that one, but if you eat that fruit off that tree you will die.

(Gen 2:16 - 17 NIV) And the LORD God commanded the man, "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."

C. Now I want to ask you something, if God had predetermined that Adam was going to eat the fruit that he told him not to eat beforehand why would he have even given him the choice?

D. If our choices didn’t matter why would God give us choices?

E. You see what God was saying to Adam and Eve was trust me. If I say that it is this way then trust me that it is right, and they didn’t trust him, and that is important so file that one away for a second because we are going to come back to it.

V. Next I want to look at some verses in the bible that happen during the time between the Adam and Eve, and how things are today.

(Gen 15:1-6 NIV) After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward." But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?" And Abram said, "You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir." Then the word of the LORD came to him: "This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir." He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars--if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be." Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.