God asks us to choose. Deuteronomy 11:18-21 & 26-28 May 29th 05
:1 CHOICE First Choice, Best choice, consumer choice, patient choice, parent choice, career choice, your choice, a good choice, that was his choice, her choice; it’s my choice.
Here is a quote from a political party manifesto:
:2 Choice gives people power, a sense of purpose and control.
Can you guess which party it’s from? It could be from any of them – because they all know that choice is an important word today.
That particular quote came from the Conservative manifesto which mentioned choice 23 times, but the Labour Party manifesto spoke about choice 56 times - maybe that’s why they were re-elected!! - because choice matters to us.
So when the bible reading today says
:3 Today I am giving you the choice…
There couldn’t be an offer that is more contemporary or in tune with our culture than that!
We all say we want to make our own choices.
We even talk about having a “RIGHT TO CHOOSE” and what is often meant when that is said is that every choice is equally valid and correct.
God says… we have to choose. But there is such a thing as a bad choice and such a thing as a good choice. Now before we look again at the choice we have to make… lets look at the Bible for a moment.
:4 Bible
Some people might think this book is irrelevant, or boring, out-of date or difficult to understand (especially if they have only ever heard it read in the English of 400 years ago!)
One of the most helpful ways to understand this book is to think of it like this…
F Bible with a heart
to think of it as something given to us by God – with love.
One of the statements from our church policy document “The Way Ahead” reads:
:5 “We honour the Bible as a gift given to us by our loving heavenly Father. It contains His word to us.”
So as we open the Bible we discover the loving heart of God, who loved us so much that he gave us his own Son, Jesus, even to die for our sake.
The bible helps us to understand God’s love for us… and that is why we can also think of the bible like this:
:6 Bible with a warning triangle
The Bible also gives guidance, information, and warnings that we need to take notice of. The Bible passage for today sounds as if it contains a warning.
F Be careful to obey all the commands I give you; show love to the LORD your God by walking in his ways and clinging to him. (vs 22)
Rules, guidance, commands, instructions, warnings - all these things are not the OPPOSITE of love they are PART OF love. Would a parent say, “Well I think it’s better for my child to find out for himself what a hot iron can do to human skin. It’s not my job to tell him… he can make up his own mind about whether she wants to touch hot things or not.”
Wouldn’t any loving parent say
“Don’t touch that… it’s hot it will harm you.”
Would a parent of a child who was ill say, “If she doesn’t feel like drinking anything when she has a very high temperature.. well obviously if that is what she feels like then I’m not going to ask her to do something she doesn’t feel like doing?”
Or would a parent say… “Look you really do need to do this, you really must drink a little water.
It will do you good. It’s for the best.”
A loving parent will tell a child to do some things… and not to do others. Well don’t you think that if God cares about us he is going to do the same?
Now human parents can often give wrong information, bad advice, even foolish guidance to their children. The whole point about God is that He doesn’t !
God, by definition is wholly good, all knowing, he is the source of all wisdom and knowledge. He knows what is best for us because he made us.
Either of my children could say to me, “Well dad you got it wrong there…” and they could well be right.
We can’t say that to God!
… and that’s why our statement about the Bible goes on to say…
:7 We are committed to be obedient to all that we can understand of the truth that God reveals to us in the Bible.
Now we need to understand that for people living in the United Kingdom in the year 2005, to make this CHOICE… to choose to be obedient to all that we can understand of the truth the God reveals in the Bible is a radical choice and a very unpopular choice.
:8 Radical
It is radical because it will affect the way you live today, tomorrow, and the day after that.
If you choose to live a life of obedience to all that you can understand of God’s word then you must know that you are choosing to live a life which will be very different from the life of most of the people you know outside the church.
Your values, your priorities in many areas of life, will not be the same as those which you will see communicated to you everyday through what you hear others around you say, through what you read in the papers, through what you watch on the TV programmes you enjoy.
For a start forgiveness becomes a priority.
Worship becomes a priority. (could add to this list….)
F Unpopular
It is an unpopular choice to make because we live in a culture where it is OK to ignore God’s commands. In fact to say that you want to be obedient to all that you can understand of what God is saying to you through the Bible, is very likely to lead other people to dismiss you as simple minded, unthinking, old fashioned, or even worse, as being an intolerant fundamentalist. Tolerance of the sinful behaviour of others is a virtue in today’s society – Jesus would be called intolerant. Many Christians also seem to believe its a virtue. We should say we believe something is wrong and smile at the person at the same time. Not say its OK its your choice.
The recent Jerry Springer Opera that caused such controversy, was controversial I think for all the wrong reasons. People were complaining about the swear words, and the rude and offensive way in which the show made fun of Jesus… all of that may have been bad enough what I found most disturbing was the philosophy of the show that was expressed in the finale… Nothing is wrong and nothing is right.
I am certain that Jesus could not agree with that statement.
:9 Our society…
Here is a comment that is worth remembering:
“Our society is becoming very intolerant of people who refuse to accept that everything is acceptable.” – Pam!
So make no mistake… obedience to all that we can understand of what God says to us through the Bible, is not an easy choice - that is, not until we know that our loving heavenly father only ever wants the best for use.
:10 Not an easy choice, the best choice
He doesn’t want to spoil our life he wants to make it better. And more than that… as he invites us to CHOOSE to live in obedience to him, to live in love with him… he also joins us on the way as he gives his Holy Spirit to us.
:11 Today I am giving you the choice between a blessing and a curse! You will be blessed if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today. You will receive a curse if you reject the commands of the LORD your God and turn from his way
God loves us enough to give us freedom, freedom to choose. He hasn’t made us puppets to be controlled. And God loves us enough to warn us that if we make wrong choices.. just like a child picking up a hot iron without realising it’s dangers… we can be hurt.
:12 Heart
When I was still at primary school I can remember playing with my friend in the garden at home. They encouraged me to jump off a wall. The wall was about 11 feet high, at the bottom was a concrete path, and just beyond the path was a grass lawn that sloped away from it. I jumped. I remember the blood. I remember not being able to breathe. I can remember trying to talk and not being able to . And I remember somebody dashing off to find my parents. I remember going to the doctor, I don’t remember how I got there. The trouble was we didn't learn about falling objects accelerating at 32 feet per second until we did physics in the secondary school !!!!
The point is: we live in a universe that is governed by physical laws. And if we try to act as if there is no such thing as gravity, we will face the consequences.
In the same way there are consequences for the choices we make. We can choose to love our creator and live in obedience to him, or we can choose not to.
F Today I am giving you the choice between a blessing and a curse! You will be blessed if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today. You will receive a curse if you reject the commands of the LORD your God and turn from his way
Does that sound a bit harsh?
Look at it like this.
:13 Car driving…
If a policeman in Cannock waves at you (demonstrate 2 different sorts of wave!!…) to stop as you are driving along the road… and you ignore him. Then you’re in trouble. If he jumps into his car.. puts on the flashing lights and comes after you… you know you’re in trouble. If you accelerate and try to run away… you are definitely in trouble.
There will be consequences of your actions in wanting to ignore the commands, just of a policeman.
But you keep on driving… and the last thing you see is a great gaping hole
F Hole…
in the road in front of you where the rain of last night had caused an old mineshaft to collapse. Too late you realise that the policeman who was waving you down to STOP was simply wanting to help you.
6. There will be consequences for us if we ignore God, the creator of heaven and earth,
the source of all goodness and love
the one who gave this life to each one of us,
and who wants nothing but the best for each one of us.
:14 Let’s choose God
Let us each make loving and obeying God our first choice. That has to be the best choice we can ever make.