Choose Life
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· 4 viewsThere are many times in our lives when we will be faced with discouragement. It is especially important that in those times, as in all times, we choose life.
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The Power of a Choice
The Power of a Choice
There’s a story about a young boy who once captured a small bird in his hands. He wanted to test his wise old teacher. So, he cupped the bird behind his back and said, “Teacher, is the bird in my hands alive or dead?”
The boy had a plan. If the teacher said the bird was alive, he would squeeze his hands and kill it. If the teacher said the bird was dead—he would open his hands and let it fly away. Either way, he would prove the teacher wrong.
The old teacher looked into the boy’s eyes for a moment and simply replied: “My son… the answer is in your hands.”
Church, every day we stand in the same position. We hold decisions in our hands—choices that shape our character, our relationships, our walk with God, and the direction of our entire lives. The power of your future, your testimony, your peace, your growth—it’s not in luck…it’s not in circumstances…it’s not in what somebody else did to you it’s in the choices you make.
God has given you salvation, His Spirit, His Word, and His grace—but what you become next is shaped by the decisions you make from this moment forward. The answer to what your life will be …is in your hands.
Intersections Matter!
Intersections Matter!
In the final days of Moses’ life, he called all the Israelites together. Can you imagine the moment? This leader who was miraculous saved from mass murder, raised in a palace, becomes a fugitive and a shepherd, receives a call and mission from God, leads the Hebrews out of slavery, speaks directly to God, is a conqueror of nations, and more … stands up in front of the people at this huge moment and says…
This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live
Our moments in life may not be as historic and monumental as that moment was but they are big moments! They are intersections where we are forced to make decisions. Moses said, “before you (is) life and death, blessings and curses”. He gives them a brief vision of what tomorrow will potentially be…life/death, blessings/curses. You choose!
We come across a lot of intersections in our lives. What choice will we make? Let’s talk about a couple of them this morning and see what the Word of God speaks to us about these types of intersections.
When You Are at the Intersection of Confusion and Life – Choose Life!
When You Are at the Intersection of Confusion and Life – Choose Life!
Let’s begin with a character that we find in the Gospel of John, Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a ruler among the Jews, specifically a Pharisee and teacher. He was a cautious man and a man of discernment who had found himself at an intersection. All of his knowledge, all of his religious heritage comes to a crossroad with this man named Jesus. He has a problem:
He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
It is as though Nicodemus says, “Jesus, look, the other guys are saying you are not legit, but I can’t believe anyone can do the things you do without God’s power. Help me out here. Which way should I go? What should I believe?”
Have you ever pulled up to this intersection, Confusion and Life? Hey, my friends, my family, my mind is saying I should go that way. They are saying I should insulate myself with 401k’s and a great job. If I just marry the right husband or right wife. If I just network well and make popular or powerful friends, then everything will be alright.
But deep down inside you hear the Spirit of God speaking…
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
Like Nicodemus, you feel it! You feel the Spirit wanting to do something fresh and new. It is as mysterious as the wind but just as real. John wraps up the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus with this famous verse:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
We often look for life in relationships, careers, experiences, or possessions — but those are sources of existence, not sources of life. When we come to these intersections, only Jesus gives life that endures, satisfies, and restores.
When You Are at the Intersection of Wounded and Life – Choose Life!
When You Are at the Intersection of Wounded and Life – Choose Life!
38 years is a long time to be sick. Year after year an invalid man laid near the Pool of Bethesda hoping for the opportunity to be healed. 38 years! He was stuck, helpless, and waiting. Do you think he was ever tempted to give up, stay home, and watch cable TV? Imagine the question that Jesus asked,
When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
I know, it is a crazy question and seems like there ought to be an immediate response, “YES”! But we can be stuck in circumstances we cannot fix on our own…
· Stuck in a sin pattern we’ve tried to break.
When we talk about sin, we need to understand what sin is. Sin is not God says 'you can't do this' because He wants to take something away from you. He says: "If you do this, it will be death. If you do this, it will be life." And then He says: "Please, choose life, so that you can live. I've made you, I know how you work. I've made this whole Earth, I know how it works. Please, choose life. ~ Lacey Mosley
· Stuck in financial difficulty that seems suffocating.
· Stuck in grief we cannot “just get over”
· Stuck in discouragement or depression that makes life exhausting.
To Jesus’ question (“Do you want to be well”) the man basically says, “I need help!” Then Jesus replies:
Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”
At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath,
This intersection is a place where Jesus really does say, “Let me have the wheel”. He didn’t say, “Figure it out, try harder, or work your way to me.”
Where we are unable, He is able.
Where we are weak, He is strong.
Where we are stuck, He enters in.
When You Are at the Intersection of Life and Death – Choose Life!
When You Are at the Intersection of Life and Death – Choose Life!
In John 11 we find the story of a man by the name of Lazarus. Jesus and the disciples get news that their close friend, Lazarus, is sick and his sisters are asking for Jesus to come. The disciples have just left Judea where they were attacked by the crowd with stones. Jesus puts off the trip to Lazarus to go back to Judea…back into the teeth of hatred. Meanwhile, the disciples find out that Lazarus is dead, and his sisters are distraught.
We could hope that life would never do this to us – but it does. We are at an intersection, what will we choose? It is almost funny, but Thomas says:
… to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
That’s the way we feel though, isn’t it? Jesus knows there is another option, life. This is just a moment in time, a lesson to show the power of Jesus because once Jesus gets to the scene, he says this…
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die;
and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
As we know, the story ends with Jesus speaking to a dead man, wrapped in grave clothes, inside a tomb…
When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
Imagine walking through your house during a power outage — disoriented, fearful, bumping into things, but one light changes everything. That’s what Jesus does for the soul. He doesn’t just condemn the darkness — He pierces it.
In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Life and light always go together in John’s Gospel. Wherever Jesus brings life, He also brings illumination — clarity, truth, and hope.
What Will You Choose?
What Will You Choose?
By Choosing Life We Go Beyond the Boundaries of This World
By Choosing Life We Go Beyond the Boundaries of This World
Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
Eternal life isn’t just about duration — it’s about quality:
By Choosing Life We Continue to Grow
By Choosing Life We Continue to Grow
The thing is, the only real sign of life is growth. And growth requires pain. So to choose life is to accept pain." ~ Richard Paul Evans
John begins his Gospel with this:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
It presents Jesus as the eternal Word — the Creator and source of all life. Physical life (bios) came into being through Him; spiritual life (zoe) is found only in Him. He doesn’t just give life — He is life.
By Choosing Life We Tap into Divine Power
By Choosing Life We Tap into Divine Power
Every story in John’s Gospel shows that when Jesus enters a situation — death turns to life, despair turns to hope, and the impossible becomes possible.
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus didn’t point to life somewhere else — He embodied it. This means true life isn’t something you achieve, it’s someone you receive.
What is your intersection? What will be your choice? Remember the bird? The answer is in your hands.
