The Right Choice

2. Build on the rock or sand the choice is yours.

(Mat 25:32-33 NIV) All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

3. Make your choice with the sheep or the goats, neither one will smell good but the location of one is much better than the other, but it is our choice and we have been given the right to make it.

G. God gives us the right to make choices that make the difference in eternity.

(Mat 25:46 NIV) "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

H. We have been given the right by God to make eternal choices that have eternal consequences.

III. Last week I talked about one of the thieves on the Cross. Have you ever wondered why there were two crosses by Jesus’? Why not more?

1. Have you ever wondered why Jesus ended up in the middle? Why wasn’t he all the way to the right or the left?

2. Maybe it was another one of God’s signs. Maybe the two Crosses on either side of the savior represented the greatest gift that God has ever given to mankind. The right to choose where we will spend eternity .

A. Just like the other people that we have talked about, these two criminals have a lot in common.

1. They were convicted by the same legal system.

2. The were both condemned to die the same death.

3. They were at the mercy of the same crowd.

4. They were both as close to Jesus as the other.

5. And they both began by hurling insults at Jesus.

(Mat 27:44 NIV) In the same way the robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.

B. But one of them changed.

(Luke 23:39-43 NIV) One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: "Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!" But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don’t you fear

God, " he said, "since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong. " Then he said,

" Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. " Jesus answered him, " I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise. "

C. There have been a lot of sermons preached about the thief that chose to choose Jesus, but we forget the one who didn’t most of the time.

1. I mean did God make him not choose Jesus? Why didn’t Jesus say "hey buddy you are about to go to Hell You better change you mind about that one."

2. I mean aren’t there stories about the shepherd leaving the ninety-nine sheep and going to look for the one lost one?

3. And the story about the woman who sweeps the house to look for the one lost coin?

4. Yea there are. But, what about the story of the Prodigal son? What did the father of the son do? Nothing!

D. So what’s the difference? The sheep was lost innocently, it just wondered off .

1. And the coin was lost accidentally or irresponsibly.

2. But, The son made a conscious choice!

E. The father in the story of the Prodigal son gave the son a choice, and Jesus gave the thieves on the Crosses the same choice too.