DVD – Matrix – scene where Neo has to choose the blue pill or the red pill…
God calls us everyday to make a choice – for him or for the alternative. If we choose him we move into a world of mystery and adventure, and we experience real life! If we choose the alternative, we are promised only a mundane, purposeless existence that end at the grave.
I believe, given the choice, most of us would rather the adventure of following hard after God than the alternative.
Jean Luc Picard of the Starship USS Enterprise, was given a second chance to undo some of the choices he had made earlier in his life. When he made those of course his later years were very different from what he had known. The infinite being, “Que” reminded Picard that he got what he asked for. Picard admitted to error and wanted things to be the way they were. “Even if it means you will die and the heart you will have will not be your own?” challenged Que. Picard accepted saying, “The Picard I just experienced was bereft of life and passion. I would rather be dead than live one more moment in the life I just saw!”
Would we rather be dead than live any life other than the life of God’s design for us?
If we would choose him:
1. Avoid bad company
Psalm 1:1
• Who to avoid
• Progression of moving away from God (counsel, stand, sit):
◦ “…walk in the counsel of the wicked” – the slightest deviation from the truth, from God’s way, begins by merely listening to the suggestions of wickedness. E.g. Genesis 3:1 – the serpent SAID to the woman… It began with the counsel of the wicked…
◦ If we risk listening to the counsel of the wicked the next step leads us to “Stand in the way of sinners”— represents joining company with – straying away from God.
◦ Leads to the unavoidable – “Sit in the seat of mockers” speaks of adopting the beliefs and behaviours of the company we keep so that we reject God and his life-design completely. Not only that, this person now mocks any others who walk in God’s way.
To find ourselves in the company of the wicked, sinners or mockers is to begin a downward spiral of spiritual prostitution. It begins with hanging out a little with apparently nice people. They can wear a guise that appears to befriend and have only your best interests at heart. Yet there are ulterior motives that drive their contribution to their supposed interest in people. The socializing leads to a relationship where they begin to plant their seeds of wickedness. Over time the innocent become the property of the deceptive wicked, sinners, and mockers – manipulated for profits to the owners. The only wages earned are the promises of increased emotional slavery and destitution in the cage of hopelessness and spiritual prostitution that slips further away from God in a quest to find a way out.
This company of wickedness, sinners and mockers are like a plague that eats you from the inside out. Like a disease of the soul it first seems innocent enough but progressively it eats away the life and glory of God until you become a grotesque picture of spiritual leprosy bearing the evidence of spiritual sores, scabs, pain and absolute death from God, and His life.
Avoid this company of people – Romans 16:17, “Watch out for people who cause divisions and upset people’s faith by teaching things that are contrary to what you have been taught. Stay away from them.”
• The best way to avoid bad company is intentionally keep good company - gather around you people who encourage, build you up – may have to choose new friends
Remez Sasson – www.successconsciousness.com)
“Positive and negative thinking are both contagious. All of us affect, in one way or another, the people we meet. This happens instinctively and on a subconscious level, through thoughts and feelings transference and through body language. People sense our aura and are affected by our thoughts. Is it any wonder that we want to be around positive persons and shun negative ones? People are more disposed to help us if we are positive. They dislike and avoid anyone broadcasting negativity.”
(The Speaker’s Bible): “If you look at things through a soured disposition you will not see anything that is lovely or sweet. The cynical heart has a charm-less world.”
To use a farm metaphor: “You cannot keep your milk sweet and yet let anything into your dairy; one dirty germ can sour an entire milking.” (Speaker’s)
2. Be intentionally positive
Psalm 1:2a – “he delights in”
The Message: “you thrill to GOD’s Word”
• Actively choosing a course
Joel Osteen – pastor in Houston Texas, who speaks to 45,000 people in his church every weekend. He tells the story of his wife taking his white, ’95 Lexus (use to be his dad’s car), to the carwash. The car came out of the wash with a long horrible scratch from the center of the hood, all the way over the top and back to the trunk. Joel was getting ready on this Saturday for Sunday’s sermon! He determined he had one of two choices: i) let it ruin the weekend for him or ii) put it in perspective. “Well,” he said to his wife Victoria, “I guess I’m the only guy in Houston who’s got a Lexus with a racing stripe.”
Joel said, “Happiness is a decision you make.”
Abraham Lincoln was quoted as saying, “Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”
To borrow Lincoln’s words we can add, “most people are about as positive as they make up their minds to be.”
I Read a story of two people applying for the same job. Both were equally qualified. Allen didn’t get the job while Jim did. What was the difference? Well, Allen had a low self-esteem. Even before he went for the interview he decided he would never get hired anyway. He got up in the morning only to find the shirt that he intended to wear was dirty. He quickly cleaned it and after getting dressed rushed out the door without breakfast because there was no time and he would be late. He entered the interview frazzled, tired, frustration and anxious.
Jim on the other hand, believed he had as good a chance as anyone to get that job. He went to bed a littler earlier and rose earlier to get ready. His clothes were carefully prepared the night before and he had a great breakfast, still having plenty of time to arrive early for the interview, fresh, rested, confident and ready.
Being positive in Jim’s reality is not about life offering all the perfect situations before him. Jim created them. He determined there was a positive response to this potential opportunity.
◦ How do you approach life
◦ What are your expectations when you come before God on a Sunday morning or when you fill out that job app?
◦ Could it be that the reason some think the church is doing so bad might not have as much to do with everyone else as one might think?
To make The Better Choice:
• Avoid bad company
• Be intentionally positive
3. Pay attention to God
Psalm 1:2b
◦ One of the best ways to figure out what God wants is the
B-I-B-L-E
◦ “Concentrate on doing your best for God, work you won’t be ashamed of, laying out the truth plain and simple.” (2 Tim 2:15)
◦ Can we quote the Scripture as good as we can recite a movie clip or sing the 20 songs of our favorite artists? Do we pay attention to God as much as we do Mats Sundin, Lindsay Lohan, or Hawk Nelson?
◦ Paying attention – deeper than mere lip service or casual activity. “Bits and Pieces”: “Writer Charles Swindoll once found himself with too many commitments in too few days. He got nervous and tense about it. “I was snapping at my wife and our children, choking down my food at mealtimes, and feeling irritated at those unexpected interruptions through the day. Before long, things around our home started reflecting the patter of my hurry-up style. It was becoming unbearable. I distinctly remember after supper one evening, the words of our younger daughter, Colleen. She wanted to tell me something important that had happened to her at school that day. She began hurriedly, ‘Daddy, I wanna tell you somethin, and I’ll tell you really fast.’ “Suddenly realizing her frustration, I answered, ‘Honey, you can tell me—and you don’t have to tell me really fast. Say it slowly.”
“I’ll never forget her answer: ‘Then listen slowly.’”
◦ Paying attention involves MEDITATION (thinking). It is musing on something, even muttering aloud as one considers a thought.
◦ God is calling us to listen slowly…
To make The Better Choice:
• Avoid bad company
• Be intentionally positive
• Pay attention to God
4. Understand prosperity God-style
Psalm 1:3
Success versus prosperity:
Success – we can mostly measure success based on how much stuff we have, or achieving a particular aim or goal. E.g. Millionaire by the time you’re 40 – that’s success.
Prosperity – an experience for the inner person.
E.g. If you’re a millionaire by the time you’re 40 but very unhappy – you do not know the experience of prosperity – only the experience of success.
(Wesleyan): “This prosperity may not be in areas of the economic, social, or physical, though normally the keeping of God’s law will increase one’s prosperity, enhance one’s rapport with good people, and improve one’s physical health. But, be that as it may, it is certain that in things spiritual ‘whatever he does prospers’.”
What things or dreams tempt you to define life based on where you stand in relation to them and where you want to be in relation to them? It is those things or relationships that lead you away from making The Better Choice.
◦ Verse 3 - Likely a reference to the date-palm tree. It can produce in very shallow soil, but never without having water nearby.
◦ We are planted in the soil of physical existence. Our fruitfulness and productivity is dependant on how close we are to Jesus, the Water of Life. We must determine to draw sustenance from his abiding presence, for then we have the resource we need for growth and fruitfulness!
◦ Prosperity must never be measured with statistical data or things owned or the desire for things like power or prestige…
To make The Better Choice:
• Avoid bad company
• Be intentionally positive
• Pay attention to God
• Understand prosperity God-style
5. Know the alternative
Psalm 1:4, 5, 6b…
“Wicked” is called “ungodly” in KJV.
Ungodly are simply people who try to get through life without God. They may be good people. But they are ungodly by virtue of not involving God in their decisions, choices, and living. He is not a priority.
One writer says of the ungodly, “[They] may even be religiously active and yet be ungodly. It may be that [they] have a natural gift and liking for speaking…and perhaps take a very great deal of interest in the increase of a denomination… [they] may be enthusiast in committee work – to be a constant worker in the outward details of the church life, a [diehard] in maintaining [the beliefs of their church], and yet be ungodly.” (Speakers, modified)
Paul speaks of ungodly people in 2 Timothy 3:1-6
1 You should also know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. 2 For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. 3 They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control; they will be cruel and have no interest in what is good. 4 They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. 5 They will act as if they are religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. You must stay away from people like that.
WRAP UP
• Two camps – God’s or the Enemy’s – Satan, Lucifer, the Devil.
• (Pass around blue pills and red pills during meditation – make a choice)
