When Life Chooses You

Good morning! Welcome to the Vineyard. If this is your first time, my name is Kevin and I’m the pastor here. Our vision at the Vineyard is simple - we want to embody Jesus to our neighbors. This happens by growing in three ways, through what we call our pillars.

First, is Presence. We want everyone to experience the presence of God. This is what transforms us to love him and others. God’s presence is where we become fully alive. We want you to know the Father.

Then, Formation. God doesn’t just love us; he is forming us to be his people who can carry his life and love to those around us. Formation is where we learn to embody the Jesus way of life. We want you to imitate the Son.

Finally, Mission. Being on mission is how we join God in the work he is doing to bring his reconciliation, justice, and mercy to earth. This is how he is bringing healing and renewal to the world. We want you to partner with the Spirit.

Presence. Formation. Mission. Be thinking about your next step. Where is God calling you to go deeper with him?

Pray...

Intro

This morning our reading comes from Deut 30:15-20

I’ve called the message this morning: When Life Chooses You.

Background: After 40 tumultuous years, Moses has finally brought the Israelites to the border of the promised land. But he will go no further. His time of leadership is over. The book of Deuteronomy is essentially a summation of the covenant that their parents made with God. The book closes with a final admonition. He sets before them a set of two options - blessings or curses, prosperity or adversity, life or death. But they have to choose. If they will walk according to how God has taught them, then they will enjoy a long and fruitful life. But if they choose to ignore everything he has said, their time in the promised land will be short. So he admonishes them to choose life and experience the life of God in its fullness.

Choose life

If only it were that easy. Ever tried to be good? There is a misguided belief that if we only knew the right thing to do, we would do it. But knowing what brings life does not mean that we will automatically choose it.  Moses’ words are not a prescription that God will MAKE something bad happen to them if they ignore his teachings; it is a description of the bad that WILL happen to them if they ignore him. He is describing here the concept of reaping and sowing. If they will live with the grain of his loving order they will experience a blessed life.  If they live against the grain, they won’t.

Moses is really expressing God’s hope for his people: “choose life”. God’s way leads to human thriving because God made us. He knows what we need for flourishing and joy. He knows what will bring us harm and misery. God didn’t say “Don’t commit adultery” because he’s a prude. Rather, he knows the fallout of adultery and the pain it causes. Sin always carries a death consequence. God’s desire is that we have life in all its abundance. His teachings weren’t intended to be moralistic; they were reflections of his own character. “This is who I am, therefore this is who I want you to be”.  

In the end, Moses could point people to the way of life, but he couldn’t give it to them. The history of the nation shows that they will ultimately reject God’s teaching and suffer the consequences.

Again, if only it was a simple as it sounds. Here’s what leads to life - do this. Except we don’t, do we? Our problem is rarely that we don’t know the right thing to do; it is that we don’t want to do it. In our fallenness, we very often choose the very things that lead to death. This is the brokenness of our human condition. We won’t choose life on our own; therefore, we need someone who can give it to us.

When Life chooses you

The OT reading this morning is paired with another portion of Jesus’ sermon on the mount, Matthew 5:21-37. It’s rather long and I’m not going to read it to you. In this section, Jesus gives a series of teachings where he references an OT teaching and then expands on it. In this passage he addresses the topics of murder and hate, adultery and lust and divorce, and makings oaths. It’s important to understand that he does not repudiate Moses - he affirms and drives his teachings deeper. Just as Moses revealed, human thriving is found in choosing the life-giving way of God.

What I want to draw your attention to is how he taught these principles. Each topics is introduced with the statement “You have heard it was said...” where he references the OT teaching. But then he follows it up with “but I say to you...” Here is where we find the hope of the Gospel, for the sermon on the mount reveals something essential about who is speaking to us. Just as Moses climbed a mountain to receive God’s word, now Jesus climbs a mountain to give God’s Word. But now it is no longer a mediator speaking the words of God to the people, it is the Word himself who has become incarnate in human flesh. Here is the “I am” revealed on Mt. Sinai, God himself in human form. And he has come once again to save his people.  

As the new Moses, Jesus brings about a new exodus from the slavery of sin and death. He has come for you to rescue you. To save you from the power and death consequence of sinful choices. To release you from the past and to open to you the way of life. Jesus said, John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” The good news that Jesus gives is that it is no longer about you choosing, but about you being chosen. The true life of God is found in Christ, not hoping that you will consistently choose the right moral path. He invites us into his life and he fills us with the Holy Spirit. See, Moses pointed them to life, but he couldn’t give it to them. He could say “this is the way” but he couldn’t give them any help in walking it out. The new Moses empowers us to live the life of God, life lived with the grain of God’s love.

Moses invites us to life; the new Moses gives it to us.

Moses pointed to the way of life; the new Moses is life.

Moses said “choose life”; Jesus is Life choosing you.

Jesus says to us all this morning, “choose life”. But he doesn’t point us to some other standard to achieve, he points us to himself. To choose a life lived with him. True life is found in Christ. 1 John 5:11-12 “And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”   

To know Jesus is to live with the grain of God’s love, filled and empowered by his Spirit to do what you couldn’t on your own. But even more, to know Jesus is to know Grace: the grace of not having to rely on yourself to choose rightly, because you’ve already been chosen. To walk in the assurance that even on bad days your are still chosen and dearly loved by God. And knowing this opens us up to the possibility of really loving God and our neighbor. When we truly know love we can risk to love. This is what happens when Life chooses you.

Have you ever accepted the gift of true life from Jesus, or are you still trying to achieve life on your own? Jesus has come to show you that you can’t perform your way to God; you can only accept his life and love as a free gift. If you’ve never done that, I invite you today to believe that Jesus has died for your sin, taking its death consequences, so you don’t have too, and that he now offers forgiveness and eternal life to all who will believe. Would you put your trust in him? Show next-steps slide.

If you are already a Christian, I want to encourage you that Jesus’ choice of you is not a one-time deal. He still chooses you. He continues to come to you to rescue, heal, and deliver. I wish that the first time I came to Jesus it would have solved all my problems. But I am a sheep prone to wander and get lost again and again. And every time Jesus leaves the other sheep to come find me, choosing me again and again. And he is still coming for you.

So choose life by choosing Christ, but do it knowing that Life has already chosen you. Amen.