Beliefs Week 4: Personal Choice

Choices, Choices, Choices...

Good morning. Welcome to church this week. I am so happy that we can gather together. I wanted to start this morning by talking about our choices. As we continue to look at our beliefs we move into our personal choices and how the impact and flow out of God’s purpose for us that we talked about last week. This morning though i wanted to talk about choices.

We have lots of Choices these days. I mean really think about it. Walk down the aisle of a grocery store. you can find like 25 different styles of ketchup, or bread. Its overwhelming at times. I was shopping this week for a Sports Coat and some dress shirts and i really noticed this. It seems like it used to be would you like Black, Grey, Brown, or Navy. Now there is Periwinkle, plaid, Pink, Executive cut, modern cut, slim cut, Man i wish slim cut made you slimmer. There are so many options that it blows my mind. I thought dress shirts would be better. Nope i had to choose between about 50 colors and brands and cut styles and different accents on the shirts. It blows your mind sometimes to think about all the choices we have to make these days.

Now i have to admit that all of these choices have very little to do with life altering decisions. I mean if i picked the wrong color shirt i can just return it and get something different. If we look at life choices and the personal choices that we make that have both life long impact and if we are honest eternal impact. I thought about this for awhile and i thought we should look to the Bible for some examples of Good choices that have eternal consequences.

Biblical Examples

If we look to the Bible we can find so many examples of people making good choices to follow after God. To fullfill their purpose to return to relationship with God. Faced with challenges and situations that would be difficult for many people these are some good examples i thought of.

Joshua 24:15 NIV

15 But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Joshua

Here we have Joshua declaring tot he people of Israel who he is going to serve. Calling them from the dangers of worship of false gods and the dangers of not pursuing Yahweh Joshua stands apart and calls others to make a choice. It is interesting about this passage it is the only place in the Old Testament that choice is actually brought up in the Old Testament. Joshua laid out for Israel the choice they had to make. He did not threaten them, or try to coerce them he just presented the choice that for him was a simple choice. He Made it clear that they had to choose for themselves that day what they would do.

1 Kings 19:4–6 NIV

4 while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” 5 Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” 6 He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.

Elijah

I found this story interesting because here we have Elijah who just had a great vicotry for God and then he was finding his life threatened. He was challenged and he was fearful. He was so much so that he wanted his life to end. He fled into the desert and he laid down ready to give up. God had other plans though. God provided. God supplied food for Elijah and he could have easily just laid there ignored it and died. Yet, he ate. He choose to see what God was doing and He ate. In his despair he ate. Then God moves in his life and appears to him a short time later in the gentle whisper. His ministry was not done. God was the source and enabled him to make the choice to get up and eat.

Matthew 4:18–22 NIV

18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 20 At once they left their nets and followed him. 21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, 22 and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

The Disciples

Imagine for a moment that the disciples didn’t listen to the call from Jesus. I know for many of us we think that if we were presented with the Call from Jesus that we of course would follow. If this was true than why does so much of the world ignore the call of God on a daily basis? We see him all around us working and moving. Some don’t realize what they are seeing, and yet others know the answer and know that God is calling yet choose to not heed the call.

The Disciples in that moment though left their nets. They followed after him. Now it could be argued that they were probably aware of who Jesus was and some of his teaching and that helped in their decision. Yet, the choice still had to be made in the moment to drop their things and Go.

Good Choices

Notice all the connections. God was involved with all of these choices. He was present. He was pursuing he was involved with the people. It makes us return to our basic humanity from the beginning of creation that we have free will or that we have choices.

God Gave us a choice. Let us look at our article of faith on this.

We believe that humanity’s creation in the image of God included ability to choose between right and wrong. Thus individuals were made morally responsible for their choices. But since the fall of Adam, people are unable in their own strength to do the right. This is due to original sin, which is not simply the following of Adam’s example, but rather the corruption of the nature of each mortal, and is reproduced naturally in Adam’s descendants.

I admit to you this is on ly the first part of the article. We will get to the second half in one second. The reality is a choice is a powerful and pervasive force in our humanity. It was in within the fall of humanity that we see the impact and power of choice and how it can affect generations beyond the original choice. We have since then been trying to return to a state where we can draw closer to the divine or run from God.

Help I need Saved!

There is a great old story that is used a lot in sermons. Some of you may have heard this funny story before but bear with me. There once was a man who found himself in the middle of a raging storm. The storm turned into a flood. As the rain pounded on his house and the water levels started to rise he began to pray. “God please save me from this coming storm.” A moment later someone banged on his window. It was a member of the local emergency response teams in a boat. come on get in the boat we will get you out of here. The man looked at him and said “No, my God will save me”. Some more time and the water levels rose further he had to evacuate the ground floor of his house and go to the second floor to stay dry. Another boat comes along and the same conversation happens. Come on get int he boat we will save you. “No, my God will save me.” Moving on the man eventually has to escape to the roof of his house. There he prays. “God I know you will save me.” This time a helicopter shows up and attempts to save him but he shouts above the noise of the helicopter “No, my God will save me”. Short time later the man drowned in the ragging storm. When he entered into heaven he met God and asked. “God why didn’t you save me from the storm” God answered I sent you two boats and a helicopter what more did you want.

This had me thinking about our choices. We so often think of our ability to choose as something that is all dependent on us. IT is something that is within our control. It is only our ability and wits that allow us to make the good choices. In fact it made me think of a common saying you hear.

Pull yourself up by your boot straps

We have heard this statement a lot in our American culture. If i am completely honest i Agree with it in part. We have a responsibility to make choices and actions that allow us to better ourselves. This is an essential part of who we are as Humans. Then i thought about it for awhile and i started to think about this. What happens when you don’t have any boots? The reality is that even those who have pulled themselves up by the boot straps and those who seem to make all the right choices to work hard to be better to pursue the “good things” i want to let you in on a little secret. They all had some form of help. They didn’t do it alone. Help comes in many forms. A teacher, parent, friend, family member. there are so many different ways that help can come. Even being presented with challenges and adversity can cause us to be creative and make those good choices. This can all be thought of as help. It helped push us beyond what we originally thought we could do. It pushed us to think creatively. It pushed someone to learn a new skill. It makes us choose to rise above our situation. There is a driving force there that someone helped foster along the way or encourage along the way. I have yet to meet someone who felt that they were self made that couldn’t think of someone that helped them at some point.

So what does this have to do with our faith. Let’s look at the second half of the article.

Because of it, humans are very far gone from original righteousness, and by nature are continually inclined to evil. They cannot of themselves even call upon God or exercise faith for salvation. But through Jesus Christ the prevenient grace of God makes possible what humans in self effort cannot do. It is bestowed freely upon all, enabling all who will to turn and be saved.

As humans we are faced with the adversity of Original sin. This sin is a part of who we are. This sin is a part of inhertiance form Adam. We are unable to do anything about it. It is not within our power to overcome this Sin.

Here comes the Help...

This is where the help comes from. “But through Jesus Christ the Prevenient grace of God makes possible what humans in self effort cannot do.” It is in Jesus death on the cross that we are able to find the help that we need to overcome the depth of Original Sin. It is in Jesus and his ever calling us back to God that we find the grace that helps us to overcome the sin that so easily entangles us. It is in him that we are able to make the choice to over power and defeat Sin. It is like this in the rest of our lives. WE see the need for help and we recognize it. WE would love to think that we can pull ourselves up by the boot straps when it comes to our faith but it is only through the sacrifice of Jesus and his grace that allows us to make the choice to follow after Him. To return to a relationship with God. It is in Him that our choice is made complete not by any action that we take. This is the power of our choice made complete in Jesus. Let us be reminded of that this morning. Let us pray.