January 21, 2001 Deuteronomy 30:11-20
“Choose New Life”
INTRODUCTION
This morning, I made a choice. I chose to heed the warning of the alarm clock and get out of bed. Then, I chose what clothes to put on for the day. I chose what to eat for breakfast or whether or not to eat breakfast at all. I chose to leave a little earlier than I normally do so that I could be here when our guests for the day arrived at the church. This day has already been filled with choices. This afternoon, Jeff, Melva and their daughters are going to join my family and me as we go out to eat together. We will choose what restaurant we are going to; we will choose to sit in the “no smoking” section when we are asked; and we will choose who is going to sit where at the table – which you know can be a real chore whenever you have a large group of people together. The men want to sit near each other so that they can talk, the women want to sit near each other so they can talk, and both kids want to sit next to momma because they so love her company. Once we have those difficult choices settled and have overcome that minor crisis, we will sit down to the table and have to make a choice about what we are going to drink. On a cold day like today, I’ll probably choose decaf coffee. But if my mouth is really dry like it is many times after I speak on Sunday morning, I might choose instead to have a tall refreshing glass of Coke. Then, after that decision is made, I pick up the menu. Do I want the beef stroganoff, the blackened salmon, the medium rare ribeye steak, or do I want to go healthy and just get a salad? Naw, let’s tack on the fat, the cholesterol and the taste! You only live once, right. Might as well live it to the fullest.
That brings us to our topic for today. Moses was nearing the end of his term in office as the leader of the nation of Israel much like President Clinton ended his term this past Friday. And like President Clinton, Moses had some parting words that he needed to pass on to the people. These people were at the brink of the promised land. They were poised and ready to go in and take it for their own. But they like their fathers had to make a decision about whether or not they were going to follow God’s way and live or follow their own way and die. Their fathers had chosen badly. They paid the consequences. They died in the wilderness. Moses told them to learn from the mistakes of their fathers and to choose life. Live life to its fullest. Wring every drop of preciousness out of it. Take every second, use it for God, and reap the rewards for doing so.
Already today, you too have made many choices. The wisest one you made was to be here today. I commend you for that. There are many people who did not make that choice and are still home in bed. It is good that you made the choice to meet with God’s people to worship Him. As we go through this passage of the Bible this morning, you are going to have to make some other choices. You are going to have to choose whether or not you are going to listen – both to me and to God’s Spirit. I believe that He is going to say some things to some people here this morning. He’s going to convict some people about some bad choices they have made in the past, maybe the recent past. He’s going to remind some people about some choices that they have made but have failed to follow through on. He‘s going to show some people that choices they have made have caused them to establish wrong priorities and that they need to reassess those choices. And He may even cause someone to make a choice to follow Christ for the very first time.
Moses came to the Israelites and told them, “Choose life!” I come to you this morning, several thousand years and later and say the same message, “Choose life!” But why should you? I want to give you four reasons why you should choose life for yourself. Turn with me to Deuteronomy 30:11-20.
1. Choose life because it is available. (vs. 11-14)
In these verses, Moses talks about two potential roadblocks that someone might throw up as to why they could never choose to follow God and for that reason could never choose life. Roadblock number 1 is that it is too difficult to know what God’s requirements on me are. Jeff, I need your help up here for a few minutes. [have Jeff Clark come up on the stage. Make sure that he brings a balloon and his pump with him] Hand me that balloon for just a minute. Now, I’m going to put a rolled up piece of paper in this balloon. Let’s say that this paper represents a message from God concerning what I need to do in order to choose life. Instead of a message in a bottle, I have a message in a balloon. Now that this paper is in the balloon, I can’t reach my finger down in there to get it out. The only way that I’m going to be able to get it out is to have Jeff blow it up. I know Jeff, that you normally use a pump to blow up these balloons, but I want you to do this one with just that hot air of yours. [have him attempt it] Was it difficult? Next to impossible. [if the attempt was successful, then say] Jeff managed to be able to do this, but most any of the rest of us would not have been able. So the message is still unknown to me because it was too difficult to blow up the balloon. It’s still a secret. Roadblock #2 [if the balloon still needs inflating, have Jeff inflate it with the pump] It’s out of my reach. When I was a kid, I always hated the game of keep-away. Jeff, hold that balloon as high as you can. Now, the balloon is blown up so the message could be read if I just had the balloon and could pop it, but the balloon is too high up. It’s out of my reach. There’s a gap between me and it, because Jeff is tall, and as you are all aware, I am not. I can’t get to where Jeff is – I can’t grow anymore. What is going to have to happen in order for me to get a hold of that balloon and the message inside? Jeff is going to have to lower his arm, bring the balloon down from where it is and give me the message. [allow Jeff to sit down]
That’s what God did for the Israelites and what He did for us. We don’t have to go up to heaven and get in God’s presence to find out what He wants from us. We don’t have to cross the Atlantic Ocean to talk to someone on the other side who knows God’s message. To the Israelites, crossing the sea would have been an impossible task, something that would have required a willingness to lose everything in order to get what was on the other side. And whoever you are, whatever skills you have, no one can get up into heaven and have a face-to-face with God. There are impassible barriers between us – physical and spiritual. If God’s message was going to get to us, then it was going to have to be because someone who had God’s message brought it from where God was to where we are. That’s exactly what Jesus did. Turn to the book of John chapter 1. (John 1:1-2 NIV) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. When John talks about the “Word” here, he’s talking about Jesus. Who better to know the requirements of the Father – the message that he wants us to know – than One who has been with Him since before time began? Jesus not only knows the message, but He brought it down to us. (John 1:14 NIV) The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:18 NIV) No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known. One of the titles that was given to Jesus is Emmanuel, which means “God with us”. God recognizes that we could never reach up to Him – wouldn’t if we could anyway. So He brought the message to us. He made it available so that we could take advantage of it.
The problem is not that we don’t have the message available to us. It’s not that we don’t know what God’s requirements are. If you don’t know the message, then it is simply because you haven’t pulled the Bible down off the shelf and started reading it for yourself. “But it’s too difficult to understand! There’s so much of it that is way out of my reach”. Look back in Deuteronomy now, chapter 28, verse 29. [read it] There are a lot of things in the Bible that I don’t understand. But that doesn’t give me the option of closing it and sticking it back on the shelf. That just means that I need to concentrate on the things that I do understand. Things like loving my enemies and praying for them. Things like forgiving those who have hurt me. Things like “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel.” Those are things that I understand. The difficulty is not in the knowing what the requirements are; the difficulty is in choosing to follow those requirements.
Choose life because it is available. The requirements are near you. But like many things that are available, they are available for only a short time. During one of the times that my former pastor from SC was here, he told me that he had passed up an opportunity to invest $5000 in the oil futures market. This was right about the time that gas prices had risen from $.89 a gallon to $1.25 a gallon. The opportunity was there, but he missed it. By the time that he saw the value in jumping on board, it was too late. He missed the chance to make $2000 in just a short period of time.
Sometimes, people don’t choose to take advantage of great opportunities because those opportunities are too difficult to understand. Though the internet is a great way to gain information, shop and keep in touch, there are millions of people here in the United States that still do not use it because they think that it is too difficult to understand. I got an advertisement in the mail this week about a computer program that I can get for free that will help me organize all my record-keeping here at the church. I can download this program off of the internet. It even comes with a manual on how to use it. The manual is 370 pages long. That says to me that the program is complicated. It’s not what we would call “user-friendly”. God didn’t make His plan for enjoying the life that He offers so difficult to understand that people would pass it by. He made it user-friendly so that we could understand it. Here it is in a nutshell. You are a sinner – so am I. God loves us in spite of our sin. He sent Jesus to die for us to pay the penalty that we could not pay. Jesus rose from the dead and is alive today. All who place their faith in Jesus and commit their lives to Him will have their sins forgiven and be guaranteed a full life in heaven. All who obey Jesus while on this earth will enjoy life. That’s it. That’s all you need to know.
The offer of life is available right now. But many people will miss it. Many don’t see it. They let the past destroy their hopes for ever really living again. Women who have suffered a miscarriage allow themselves to go into a deep depression sometimes and begin to wonder if they can ever live again. People who have made mistakes in the past maybe where they have taken the life of someone else or where they have injured the life of someone else through their words or actions wonder if they can ever live again. People whose world has crumbled around them – marriage has fallen apart, lost their job, feel all alone – God says that life is available. To choose to live in the past is to choose to believe that life is not available to me anymore. “To choose to look backward for something better than now is to choose death. To choose never to get over the past, that is death. To choose never to forgive yourself for your mistakes, that’s death. When God says, “choose life”, He is telling us to use this moment, to live right now.” [sermon by Joseph Smith, p. 4] The offer is available right now to everyone regardless of where you are or where you’ve been. You can live life to the fullness that God intended. But many will close their eyes to it. Many will wait until the offer has been withdrawn. Then it will be too late. Choose life while it is available.
2. Choose life because it is worthwhile. (vs. 15-16)
Today in the Southern Baptist Convention and many other denominations is Sanctity of Life Sunday. It is a day that we set aside every year to voice the value that we as Christians put on human life so that we might work together to protect that life. One of the arguments that is made to justify the ending of a human life is that certain lives are not really worth preserving. A mother is told that the test came back, and the news is not good. Her child is going to have Down’s Syndrome, or Spinal Bifida. The doctor says, “Anyone would understand if you choose to abort that baby. In fact, it might be better for everyone. It will save you pain, it will prevent that child from enduring a life of suffering and being a constant drain on everyone he comes in contact with. Maybe it’s better just to end that life. Is it really worth the sacrifice?” The husband has seen that his wife is becoming extremely forgetful. She used to be a college professor. She read incessantly. She had written scholarly works that were published in scientific journals all over the world. The thing that she valued the most was her mind. She was always a sharp wit. The doctor has indicated that she has the first signs of Alzheimer’s. It’s a dreaded word, even more dreaded than cancer for this particular couple. Better to die than to live not knowing anyone or anything. What kind of life is that? Is that kind of life worthwhile? Let’s see how God would answer that question. (Gen 1:27,31 NIV) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. . . God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. . . All human life has worth because mankind is made in the image of God. God put His stamp of approval on it when He said, “It was very good”. But didn’t sin change all that? Didn’t we lose our worth before God when we became sinners? Obviously not. God paid the ultimate price to buy us back when He sent His Son Jesus Christ. There is nothing that you have done or can do, there is nothing that you can point to within yourself of some physical, emotional, or spiritual flaw – no weakness, no failure – nothing that will change the fact that you are valuable to God as a person. That is forever settled in the eyes of God.
What you can affect though is the worth of the day to day living that you do while on this earth. Look at vs. 15. ”I set before you life and prosperity . . .” God didn’t intend that we live a wasted life. He intends that we live a productive life. He measures productivity by a different standard than we do though. I suppose that every father battles with their children about cleaning their rooms. Often I will send Victoria down to her room and tell her to clean it. 5 minutes later, she will return and tell me that she has successfully cleaned her room. Now, I know that the mess that I saw that caused me to send her to her room for cleaning in the first place could not have been cleaned up in the five minutes that she was down there. So I’ll ask her a question: “Victoria, is that room clean to my standards or to your standards?” I know that there is a big difference, and so does she. When we measure prosperity, productivity in a person’s life, we have to measure it by God’s standards. Look at how He measures it:
Love the LORD your God – that’s a matter of the heart
Walk in His ways – that’s a matter of the feet
Keep His commands, decrees and laws – that’s a matter of the mind
God doesn’t measure productivity, prosperity by how much we have in the bank account, by how many civic organizations we volunteer for, by how many medals and honors we have in the trophy case, or even by how many toys we have and whether our toys are bigger and shinier than the guy next door. He measures our productivity by what our relationship with Him is like. What are we like on the inside? Are we walking in obedience to Him? (1 Sam 16:7 NIV) But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." Look at what God says is going to be the result of the person who chooses life and chooses to follow God’s way. (vs. 16)
You will live and increase
The LORD your God will bless you
You will take possession of the things that God has in store for you
Christian, do you ever ask yourself if it is really worth it to live for God in a world that is antagonistic to Him and His ways? There’s a song on the Christian radio stations that poses that very question. Is it worth it? Wouldn’t it just be easier to live on the other side? Easier? Probably. More pleasurable? For a while. But is it worth the cost that you would have to pay? No way!! If we were to ask Cassie Bernau – one of the students that was killed at the high school in Paducah, Ky. - whether or not it was worth her life to stand up and boldly proclaim her allegiance to Jesus Christ, she would answer us with the same answer that she gave to the boy who pointed a gun at her. She would say “Yes”. She gave her life for the Lord who gave His life for her. The world says, “What a waste.” God says, “What a treasure!”
Is all human life worthy of protecting and preserving? YES!! Is it worth the cost to live a life for God in total surrender and complete obedience to Him? YES, yes and yes!!!! Choose life because it is worthwhile.
3. Choose life because the only other option is death and destruction. (vs. 17-18)
I don’t like having too many options. The favorite question in our house is “What do you want for dinner?” Or if we decide to go out to eat, you still have to face the choice of where you want to eat. “Where do you want to eat?” “Oh, I don’t know. Where do you want to eat?” “I don’t care.” I know of a restaurant whose actual name is “I don’t know, and I don’t care.” Whenever our family can’t make up our minds, we just decide to go to the food court at the mall. At least then, you don’t have to make the choice for the whole family. You just have to make a choice for yourself. But even that can be challenging. Too many options. After I’ve made my decision, I then start to wonder if one of the other options might have been better. The other day, we were at the mall facing this very dilemma. I got a Chick-fil-A, my usual when I can’t make up my mind, and Tammy got a Turkey sub from Steak Escape. She allowed me to take a bite of her sub. Immediately, I knew that I had made the wrong choice. With all the options that were available, Tammy had made the right choice for the moment. Maybe if the options had been narrowed down a bit, my chances of finding the right one – making the right choice would have been greatly improved.
That’s what Moses did for the Israelites. He narrowed their options. [read vs. 17-18] He told them that they could either choose life or death. Prosperity or destruction. Obedience or disobedience. Two options to choose from – that’s all that you get. That’s the same choice that Jesus offers to us. (Mat 7:13-14 NIV) "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. God’s says to us, “My way or no way.” Go your own way, and it will lead to your destruction.
“But what if I don’t like either option. What if I want to make my own road.” There are only two roads. You have to choose one. “What if I don’t want to choose either one.” Failure to choose the right way is to choose the wrong way. Choosing not to follow the way of life is the same as choosing to follow the way of death. Choose life because the only alternative is to choose death.
4. Choose life because of your children. (vs. 19-20)
The Dallas Morning News of March 21, 1971, featured a column by Sue Connally which carried this heart-rending account: "The shrill, piercing cry, almost inhuman in its intensity and timbre, sears its way into your conscience. Once you’ve heard it, you can never forget it. The sound is made by a baby only one day old. But this is not a normal child; it was introduced to life ’hooked’ on heroin! The typical, disturbing scream means that the pain and rigor of withdrawal are already taking place. This little one became addicted when the woman carrying it used drugs. Muscles in the tiny body are taut, the rigid arms and legs flail incessantly, and the high-pitched cry continues for hours. Such children, although showing intense hunger, can’t retain their feedings. The tremors that rack them are so severe their bassinets shake. Occasionally there are even convulsions. ’They could never rest, but would run themselves to death,’ says Dr. Dolores Carruth, ’unless we sedate them.’" Can you imagine babies being born screaming for a "fix?"
Children are important to God. Jesus made that extremely clear when He was on earth. (Mark 10:14 NIV) When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. (Mat 18:6 NIV) But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. You choose death for yourself, and you think that that is your own decision, and the only person that is going to be affected by that is you. WRONG! Look at what Moses said. [read vs. 19-20] When you choose to disobey God and choose destruction for yourself, you choose to head your own children down that same pathway. You understand that choosing a restaurant affects what your whole family is going to put in their own bodies, but you don’t understand that choosing to disobey God will bring destruction not just on you, but on your whole family. That baby I read about a few moments ago – one day that baby will be old enough to make her own decision about the pathway that she will choose. But at the moment of her birth, she was suffering because of a choice that her mother made. She will be scarred because of that choice. And the chances are that she will choose the same pathway for herself. Her body is already in tune to make that happen.
If you can’t choose to follow God because of the benefits that it will give to you or even to avoid the suffering and destruction that it will bring to you, choose to obey God and live for Him because of your kids. Don’t make them pay for your stubbornness and pride.
CONCLUSION
After a few of the usual Sunday evening hymns, the church’s pastor slowly stood up, walked over to the pulpit and, before he gave his sermon for the evening, briefly introduced a guest minister who was in the service that evening. In the introduction, the pastor told the congregation that the guest minister was one of his dearest childhood friends and that he wanted him to have a few moments to greet the church and share whatever he felt would be appropriate for the service.
With that, an elderly man stepped up to the pulpit and began to speak, "A father, his son, and a friend of his son were sailing off the Pacific Coast,"
he began, "when a fast approaching storm blocked any attempt to get back to shore. The waves were so high, that even though the father was an experienced sailor, he could not keep the boat upright, and the three were swept into the ocean as the boat capsized."
The old man hesitated for a moment, making eye contact with two teenagers who were, for the first time since the service began, looking somewhat interested in his story. The aged minister continued with his story, "Grabbing a rescue line, the father had to make the most excruciating decision of his life: to which boy he would throw the other end of the life line. He only had seconds to make the decision. The father knew that his son was a Christian and he also knew that his son’s friend was not. The agony of his decision could not be matched by the torrent of waves.
"As the father yelled out, ’I love you, son!’ he threw out the life line to his son’s friend. By the time the father had pulled the friend back to the capsized boat, his son had disappeared beneath the raging swells into the black of night. His body was never recovered."
By this time, the two teenagers were sitting up straight in the pew, anxiously waiting for the next words to come out of the old minister’s mouth. "The father," he continued, "knew his son would step into eternity with Jesus, and he could not bear the thought of his son’s friend stepping into an eternity without Jesus. Therefore, he sacrificed his son to save the son’s friend. How great is the love of God that He should do the same for us. Our heavenly Father sacrificed His only begotten Son that we could be saved. I urge you to accept His offer to rescue you and take a hold of the life line He is throwing out to you in His service." With that, the old man turned and sat back down in his chair as silence filled the room.
The pastor again walked slowly to the pulpit and delivered a brief sermon with an invitation at the end. Within minutes after the service ended, the two teenagers were at the old man’s side. "That was a nice story," politely started one of the boys, "but I don’t think it was very realistic for a father to give up his only son’s life in hopes that the other boy would become a Christian."
"Well, you’ve got a point there," the old man replied, glancing down at his worn Bible. A big smile broadened his sorrowed face, and he once again looked up at the boys and said, "It sure isn’t very realistic, is it? But I’m standing here today to tell you that story gives me a glimpse of what it must have been like for God to give up His Son for me. You see ...... I was that father and your pastor is my son’s friend."
INVITATION
Moses threw out a life-line to the Israelites and said, “Grab hold! Choose life!” God is throwing out a life-line to you today, and He too is saying, “Grab hold! Choose life!”
For some of you, the danger that you face is the danger of being totally destroyed in hell because of your refusal to grab hold of the forgiveness that God offers. You need to grab hold of the life-line that Jesus fashioned when He shed His blood on the cross for you. You need to come to me this morning as we sing, and I’ll take God’s Word of life and show you how you can have the eternal life that God offers.
For others of you, the danger that you face is living a wasted life. Dog-paddling in the ocean, keeping your head above water, maybe even just in sight of land, but never really getting anywhere. You live life by your own standards in your own way. When God tells you the direction to land and how you can be prosperous, you brush it off and keep on dog-paddling. Choose life. Choose to live God’s way – to love Him with all your heart, to walk in His ways, to keep His commands, decrees and laws. If this is you, then you come forward, talk to me if you need to, talk to God because you need to – grab hold of the full life that he offers you.
For still others, the danger that you face is not being able to let go of the death that has happened to you in the past. Something happened, and you died inside. A relationship ended, an act occurred, a failure happened. Now you exist, but you don’t live. Now you are filled with hurt, depression, anger, bitterness. Turn them over to God. He wants you to be filled with life and prosperity. He wants you to live and increase. Choose to let go of the past that is pulling you under and cling to God’s love and forgiveness which will pull you to safety.
