New Year, Renewed Dedication

1. The Choice- God or the World

a. God has given us the ability to choose.

-16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

b. We will choose either the world’s path or God’s path

i. -Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

5  Trust in the LORD with all your heart,

and do not lean on your own understanding.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

ii. -4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

c. Individual Choice

2. The Call to choose.

a. The choice demands a decision.

i. -24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

b. The lack of a choice makes you just like the world.

i. -15 “ ‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! 16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

a. When water sits, it becomes just like the world around it.

a. When water sits, it becomes just like the world around it.

c. The call is a daily choice. (Israel is offered the same choice many, many times)

i. -23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

a. Intentional, daily choice to follow God.

d.

3. Weight of the Choice.

a. Life or Death- Joshua 24:20

i.-19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, 20 loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”

b. Our choice changes the lives of people around us.

4. Our Commitment.

4. Our Commitment.

c. Leadership happens regardless of our choice.

i. - Train up a child in the way he should go;

even when he is old he will not depart from it.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.