CHOOSE LIFE
Text: Deuteronomy 30:15 -19
Deuteronomy 30:15 - 19: (15) See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. (16) If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the LORD your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. (17) But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, (18) I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. (19) I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live,
In the 1960s Ruth Graham, wife of Billy Graham, commented to her husband that “If God didn't judge America soon He was going to have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah”. How much worse has America grown since she spoke these words. http://evenatthedoors.com/godsjudgment.html A lot has happened in 62 years that should make us praise God that God has not unleashed on us the judgment that America deserves!
When America was being established as a colony that would later became a world leader among the nations, it was Puritan preacher John Winthrop who said in his sermon, “A Modell of Christian Charity’ aboard the flagship Arbella , that America is a city on a hill (Matthew 5:14). That statement was profound as it was prophetic. It was Ronald Reagan who cited once again those words and the significance to us as a nation- -”a city set on a hill”! https://www.neh.gov/article/how-america-became-city-upon-hill How much has America’s light lost its luster? How much of America’s light has grown dim? How can America know the path God chose for her to take without His word to be “a light for our feet and a lamp for our path” (Psalm 119:105)?
What caused America to loose some of her luster? Is it bad decisions from bad leaders through the generations who chose to “bow down to other gods whom they serve” (Deuteronomy 30:17)?
Today, we will explore obedience, light and preservation.
OBEDIENCE
Does obedience mean that we have to pick a side?
1) Avoiding troubles?: “There is an old story about a boy who bought a new sports car. He ordered it painted red on one side and blue on the other. The salesman was extremely curious and asked about the unusual request. “Well,” said the lad, the way I drive, I’m always getting into trouble. I like to hear the witnesses contradict each other.” (Ernest A. Fitzgerald. Keeping Inspirations in the Air. Greensboro: Pace Communications, 1988, p. 107). I remember trying to avoid trouble or rather pain when I was four years old, for a spanking by padding my pants with tissue. It was a spanking I deserved that I never received.
2) Double mindedness: When we do not make clear and distinct decisions and waver between two possibilities, we become victims of double-mindedness. https://thechristianadvocate.org/what-is-double-minded-about/ James 1:8 tells us that the double-minded man is unstable in all he does (NIV). Jesus also addressed this same idea when He told us that we cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). Jesus calls His disciples to be salty and bright and not chameleons who try to blend in with whatever crowd they are with.
3) 20/20 hindsight: They always say hindsight is 20/20 because when we look at how the events unfolded in end because the conclusion has already been revealed.
When the author walks onto the stage, the play is over. God is going to invade, all right; but what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else comes crashing in? This time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose your side. That will not be the time for choosing; It will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realized it before or not. Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. ([C.S. Lewis] Galaxie Software. (2002). 10,000 Sermon Illustrations. Biblical Studies Press). How many poor leaders do we have because of their inability to choose which side that they stand on?
Does disobedience bring judgement?
1) Questions: Do we obey because we are afraid we’ll get zapped if we don’t? Or, do we obey because of our praise? Or do we obey because of our love for God? How can we expect God’s blessing if we do not follow God’s will?
2) Answers: We should have a healthy fear of God. We should give God our praise! We should love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength and we should love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
3) Consequences: Decisions and behavior will always have consequences. When Lot chose to go his separate way from Abraham, he chose his own path which did not go well. He chose his own path over God’s will and it did not go well for him because in the end he lost his wife (Genesis 19:26) and his sons in law (Genesis 19:14) and his reputation (Genesis 19:30 -38). Parting company with Abraham and settling among the men of Sodom who were wicked and sinful (Genesis 13:13) was definitely not a good idea! God destroyed both Sodom and Gomorah (Genesis 19:23) because of their wickedness.
LIGHT
Why does Jesus tells us that we are the light of the world and the salt of the earth?
1) Mission statement?: Jesus told us we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world because of the difference we are called to make. Being salt and light means that our presence is supposed to make a difference.
2) Spiritual thermostats: A thermometer simply records the temperature as opposed to a a thermostat. We all know what it means to adjust the temperature on out thermostats. We want the air conditioning or the heat to regulate the temperature.
What happens when our light loses its luster?
1) Lamp lighters: John Ruskin described precisely the mission of every Christian: Punching holes in the darkness. “One evening when the English essayist and author John Ruskin was a little boy, he was sitting at the window of his home watching the lamplighter progressively work his way up a hill lighting the street lamps. Poking his finger at the window pane to make a point, the little lad suddenly exclaimed, “Look! He’s punching holes in the darkness.” https://www.guidelines.org/devotional/punching-holes-darkness/ Isn’t that what Jesus called us to do----to punch holes in the darkness?
2) Cross-hairs: Satan takes aim at us daily with his fiery darts (Ephesians 6:10 -20) hoping to lure us away from our job as lamplighters so that he can magnify darkness to hide the light of the gospel from would-be believers (II Corinthians 4:4).
John 3:19-20: This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
3) Waywardness: Remember what happened to Lot when he went his own way? Lot went to Sodom which was known as a wicked and immoral place (Genesis 13:13). Later Abram had to go and rescue his nephew from Sodom (Genesis 14:1 -14). It the nineteenth chapter of Genesis, God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for their wickedness and immorality. How close has America gotten to their level of wickedness and immorality?
4) Flirting with disaster: What happened to our nation when our nation’s leaders took their eyes of our Lord? They took prayer out of the public schools. The passed Roe vs Wade on January 22, 1973 making abortion possible. Who can deny America’s waywardness and immorality is problematic and provokes God’s judgment?
5) Judgment: It has been speculated that 63 million abortions happened in America alone since then. You cannot tell me that all 63 million of them were all necessary! Sadly, Satanists praise and endorse abortion and even claim it as a satanic act of worship. (https://conservativefiringline.com/satanists-claim-theyre-entitled-to-abortion-as-a-religious-rite). The blood of those 63 million babies cries out (see Genesis 4:10). Ruth Graham was right about God judging America! There is no doubt that God has been judging America giving her a chance to repent! Partial repentance is incomplete repentance. Not choosing God’s way is to choose death because sin and its wages leads to death (Romans 6:23).
6) Choice: Righteousness is a choice! God said in Deuteronomy 30:19, “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live” (NRSV).
Our Forefathers chose life and freedom which was why they came to America to escape religious persecution. How many in America are choosing death and curses instead of life and blessings? How many in America choose the broard path which ends in destruction instead of the straight and narrow path that leads to life (Matthew 7:13 -14)?
7) Vigilance: Romans 13:12: tells us that “The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light”.
PRESERVATION
Will history repeat itself if we as a nation do not repent?
1) A city set on a hill: “On April 30, 1789, soon after he delivered his presidential address, George Washington led the Senate and the House of Representatives in procession on foot to a church in a sacred gathering where their first collective act was to gather for prayer”. (Jonathon Cahn. The Harbinger. Lake Murray, Florida,Front Line, 2011, p. 202). How far have we in America drifted away for God in two hundred and forty-three years from the inauguration of our first president?
2) Renege: In the past, in America Schools were established to teach the Bible and in the twentieth century a decision was made to take prayer out of public schools. Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders build in vain (Psalm 127:1)! Some in the field of education cater to a curriculum that teaches hate, gender confusion, immoral principles and godlessness. They call evil good and good evil (Isaiah 5:20). And we wonder what is happening to America? How close are we to the godlessness of Sodom and Gomorah?
3) II Chronicles 7:14: if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land!
Is repentance enough for our preservation?
1) Ongoing repentance: Is repentance a one and done kind-of- a thing? No! Of course not! We must not only repent but produce fruit that is in keeping with repentance (Matthew 3:8). “The fruit is not the change of heart, but the acts which result from it” , (Robertson’s Word Pictures (quoting McNeile)). Repentance is about moving forward as children of light as we remember that we were called out of the darkness of sin into the light as children of God’s light (Ephesians 5:8 paraphrased).
2) Repentance helps preserve us: When we no longer feel the urging and conviction of the Holy Spirit to repent, it not a cause for peace but for anxiety because failure to repent misses the mark!
Pressed
Pressed out of measure and pressed to all length,
Pressed so intently, it seems beyond strength,
Pressed in the body, and pressed in the soul,
Pressed in the mind till the dark surges roll,
Pressure by foes, and a pressure by friends,
Pressure on pressure till life nearly ends.
Pressed into knowing no helper but God,
Pressed into loving the staff and the rod,
Pressed into liberty where nothing clings,
Pressed into faith for impossible things,
Pressed into living a life in the Lord,
Pressed into living a Christ-life outpoured.
- Selected
(Galaxie Software. (2002). 10,000 Sermon Illustrations. Biblical Studies Press. [Source of origin:The Disciplines of Life, by V. Raymond Edman, (Minneapolis: World Wide Publ., 1948), p. 16.]).
3) II Chronicles 7:14: Again, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
4) The Cross: To borrow the wording from Max Lucado, “Jesus chose the nails”. Isaiah 53:6 reminds us that "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, each one to his own way; and Jehovah has laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (MJKV). “We have all sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 MKJV). “The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Jesus chose the nails, chose to die in our place to take away our sin (John 1:29). Jesus is the Way, the truth and the Life, and there is no other way to Heaven except through Jesus who paid the price for sin (John 14:6, I Corinthians 6:20). Choose life in Jesus Christ!
May America return to be a city on a hill!
In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
