20170527 | The Power of Choice | Pastor John Lomacang

[Music] you before we pray I'd like you to open your Bibles this morning to Joshua 24:15 God has been really tapping on my forehead lately and when I say lately I mean that toward the ending of last year and the beginning of this year my wife and I have really by God leading revolutionized our study life not just a quick devotion in the morning if we only had time to do that we would at least do that but we would pray in the morning pray in the evening pray in the afternoon read our Bibles chapter after chapter now we're in the book of Judges and if you want to strengthen your relationship as a family as a couple as parent with children as husband with wife you really need to take the time to put in your mind those things that could make the difference the Word of God the entrance of God's Word gives light so the entrance of God God's Word gives a nourishment so the entrance of God's Word gives wisdom and you may have read the Bible or read through the Bible or read portions of the Bible for years but I believe that the closer we get to the coming of our Lord the more we need to be fortified with the truth of God's Word and this passage in Joshua 24 is synonymous with making a conscious deliberate decision about where your life is headed Joshua 24:15 and the Bible reads and if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord that even sounds strange to say choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve whether the gods which are deserves that were on the other side of the river or the gods of the amorite and whose land you dwell let's read the last part together are you ready with some strength but as for me in my house together we will serve the Lord that a spouse loving father in heaven speak to our hearts that we may make eternal decisions that we will determine and make decided measured effort that we will take hold of your power and as you to come in and help us to make decisions that will impact our lives for eternity in Jesus name I pray amen the single most powerful gift that God has given to every one of us is the power of choice if you if you trace your life you will see in the fingerprint of your journey bad choices and good choices uninformed choices and well informed choices as you look at the unfolding of the the history that is behind you you will see that every moment of every day you have made a choice and who you are and what you are becoming and what you have been and what you are now going to be and where you're headed and where you're not headed all is hinged and predicated on the power of choice I mean becoming very real about it we can think of the fact that we are wiser now as we get older we ought to get wiser come on somebody say sometimes you get a hiccup and you make dumb decisions when you get older and I have eliminated from my from my vocabulary the word mistake because somewhere along the way you've got to come to the conclusion that you are not where you are by mistake but you are where you are by choice to choose to study or not to study your Bible will determine who you become to choose to worship or not to worship will determine how strong you are to choose to follow God or not to follow God is a decision you will make nothing about your life happens coincidentally or by proxy meaning no one decides to put you where you don't willingly want to be God has not created as a slave every one of us will be either in the kingdom of God or not in the kingdom of God because we have exercised the power of choice now it may seem very elementary but I need to make it very clear what choice is choice is an act of selecting or making a decision when base when faced with two or more possibilities to have at least two choices you got to choose one to go to the left to go to the right to say yes I'll say no to plan or not to plan someone once said to fail to plan is to plan to fail to not say yes to God is to choose to say no to even say wait to God is the choice to say no to God for now synonymously to choose means to make a decision to decide to select to consent to pick one to follow through on an act that you desire to yield to a craving to give in to an inclination choice is the most powerful thing that God has ever gifted to humanity powerful when I sat down this week and began to go through notes of the last few months we don't only study but we begin to chronicle the things we study we begin to look at our notes we begin to read and I thank God for the servant of the Lord Ellen White what do you say a plethora of wisdom and when you look at the Bible and you look at from Genesis to Revelation you'll see in every story even in the book where God's name is not even mentioned choices are being made for or against the plan in the will of God choice to me as I as I've looked at that choice is more powerful than the thundering waters gushing from the heights of the walls of the Niagara upstate New York thundering walls thundering water gushing crushing to the earth choice is more powerful than that and God has not given us choice to waste but to use to make decisions about our future about our tomorrow you see because a choice develops an action follow me carefully an action develops a habit a habit develops a character and a character determines your destiny so that so something as simple as a little choice to choose or not to choose in the end you'll discover that your destiny can go back to the simplicity of the choice you chose not to or to make when Joshua was standing there with the children of Israel he began to recount how God had led them you see when you look at the divisions of the scripture you have Genesis Exodus numbers Deuteronomy Leviticus you have all these five books of the Bible then you have judges in Joshua Joshua and judges and these books are chronological because when God led the children of Israel out of Egypt there were adults among those that were delivered out of the bondage of Egypt but there were children so when Moses took the people of God to Mount Sinai and deliver to them the law of God and they said all that the Lord had said we will do they made a choice to do God's will but what they did they made a they made a mental choice but they never connected their hearts to the choice that they had verbally committed you see to commit with your mind and not put your life into it and not put your heart into it even the desire to do good if that's all you have is a desire to do good and don't do anything but have a desire then you're going to do wrong so they had a desire to do good and so Joshua now the children that came out of the land of Egypt even the children born during the wilderness soldier and are now adults and Joshua was standing on the border of the promised land and he's saying to Israel look at the history of your father's look at the genealogy of your family line look at the things that have happened to them there's not a scripture this scripture is not actually in my script of God just tapping on the fort and said go there come with me to first Corinthians chapter 10 go there with me first Corinthians chapter 10 notice what the Apostle Paul says to us thank you Lord for additional wisdom the apostle paul 1st corinthians chapter 10 and verse 11 we are told the Bible says now all these things happen to them as what as examples and they were written for our what admonition get this on whom the ends of the ages have come so in other words God is saying if you pause for a moment and I'm learning you know sometimes we learn the hard way come on to body segment sometimes you learn the hard way I used to have this thing that the God had told me to go back to I used to say I learned from other people's mistakes but you know that when you live from day to day sometimes you feel that their days that you feel really godly and nothing could touch you you have those days but then they're those days you wake up in the morning and you said what is wrong with me am i rahmatullah shoes there those days will you say Lord tell me I didn't just do that you see according to the law of averages Jesus what you supposed to make all the dumb choices when you're young amen lights but sometimes those dumb choices tend to seep into your life even as you get old no amens required just listen when you look at the life of Abraham oh I never forgot when the servant of the Lord said that Abraham's greatest choice Abraham's greatest test came when Abraham was an old man so don't ever get to the place where you think you've been an Adventist Christian so long that you can't be tested at every stage and you'll walk with God he's going to bring the test not to reveal you to him Doug but to reveal you to you because sometimes I'll be honest sometimes we don't know who we are can I get a witness sometimes you say Lord I know you didn't see that and you say yes I did you say lord please forgive me and so as Joshua chronicles the journey of the children of Israel he is saying to us today that a single choice has more impact on your destiny hear me carefully than all the forces that hell can unleash against us you remember the quotation the weakest Saint is more powerful the weakest Saint is more than a match for four and I'm paraphrasing for Satan more than a match when we get on our knees and pray the weakest Saint is more than a match and Paul the Apostle says it this way for we are more than conquerors through him who loved us so I'm getting to the place in life where I'm saying okay Lord I'm getting gray and sometimes I see a little bit of scalp peeking through come on help me out and I say at this stage in life I should have a list of do's and dont's if you don't have a list get a list because at some point in our walk with God we've got to exercise the intelligently informed divinely supplied decision-making to just decide by God's grace I'm going to do what's right power of choice I was so moved you see the right focus informs the will which results in the right choice when I found this quotation I stood up and praise God by myself at home in the book education the servant of Lord says everyone may place his will on the side of the will of God everybody you got a will the focus will get me what you focus on will determine how you think and how you think will determine how you act and how you act will determine the outcome of your character and the outcome of your character will determine your destiny so the question is I begin today by say what are you focusing on because by beholding we become changed and this world is designed in such a way that I want you to focus on the wrong thing I love what David said he made a covenant with his eyes then he'll put no evil thing before him Joel made a covenant with his eyes and David said Lord opened my eyes that I may behold wonderful things and how amazing it is that the last message to be given is a message to Laodicea which means we need our eyes to be anointed spiritual anointed because we don't see the things that we ought to see and sometimes we choose not to see the things we ought to see come on now yes you get over you know there are certain movies you should not be watching certain places you should not be going on the internet certain things you should not be writing on Facebook some people think that Facebook is the place to put all their business not knowing that what you put out there is going to come back to you press down shaken together and running over but why do we make these kinds of choices why do we choose to put stuff on Facebook that will be a witness against us in the judgement I've made a covenant I put the picture of my wife and I on Facebook but I have at most almost all my content is spiritual stuff I like to start spiritual battles on Facebook what I mean by that is agitate people's minds to think about truths to point them back to Christ to let them know that we can make decisions to choose or not to choose we can make choices that will impact our lives today in our lives for eternity God when he created man he created man with the in a Leah belite to make a decision between what they're going to do and what they're not going to do some people think that when God made Adam and Eve he made them perfect he made them he made them sinless but he did not take from them the ability to sin because if God had taken from them the ability to sin then there would have been robots but God created man with free moral agency the the ability to make decisions in other words intellectual choices are not always intelligent choices to do what I just said intellectual choices are not always intelligent choices we are where we are because we make intellectual choices we are what we are because we make intellectual choices but intellectual choices intellectual choices are not always intelligent choices a wise man who who messed up his life wrote these following words Solomon said the way of a fool is right in his own eyes but he who reads counsel is wise proverbs 12 and verse 15 the way of The Fool is wise in his own eyes but he who was wise heeds counseled when Paul the Apostle chronicles the reason why the antediluvian world fell he said they knew God but they chose not to glorify Him as God they didn't like to keep God in their knowledge they did not like to retain God and professing themselves to be wise they became fools it always amazes me that when people get degrees somewhere along the way I don't know how many degrees it takes to for you to kick into foolish mode but somewhere along the way some people think that they so educated that they don't need God anymore and somehow the devil also makes us think at moments of our lives follow me carefully that the pleasures of this world this is how the devil works he makes us thinks think that the pleasures of this world are greater than the pleasures that we find and serving God I mean what other reason can you give for people going down a path that they know is going to lead them to destruction but they go down that path anyway Isaiah says it carefully Isaiah 5 and verse 21 woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own cite the single act between who we are and who we can be is choice I want to say this carefully because right now we're living in a very fragile world the only thing more powerful than an atomic bomb is the choice not to use one Amen more powerful than an atomic bomb is the choice not to use it because whether they know it or not there is no such thing as a limited nuclear exchange have you heard that before limited nuclear exchange I'll just shoot one nuclear weapon your way and you just shoot one my way and we'll call it a day somebody ought to pray that wisdom prevails in the leaders of the world come on say amen to that choice is so powerful it is the czechs checkbox between life and death the thin line between failure and success if you condemn it if you condemn the choice that God has given to you if you use it wastefully you'll discover that who you have become is not who you wanted to be God is calling his people back to making wise choices remember the story of Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar chose to continue to exalt himself he chose to continue continue to contribute all of his successes to the work that he had done and God had warned him incessantly not to exalt himself but he exalted himself and when God ripped Nebuchadnezzar from his golden dishes and gave him a seven-year diet of grass after that seven years his reason returned to him and I'm sure somewhere along the way Nebuchadnezzar must have said what was our thinking brothers and sisters we are on the borders of eternity we've got to make decisions for eternity what do you say got to make decisions about eternity we cannot leave our eternal this destiny in the hands of somebody else we cannot say well you choose for me each one of us must examine ourselves each one of us must mold our choices must choose our focus must must must influence our own thoughts must get the proper information because nothing shapes our thoughts like the information that we embrace the things that we read the Bible that we expose our selves to Bible says as a man thinks in his heart what does it say so is he and when you look at this hole when you look at what you end up it comes down to something as simple as choice is born in the mind before it is carried out in the life we sit down and we think about things I found myself throughout life sometimes you would sit down and just think somebody said what are you thinking about and you know you say nothing you know there's not a moment of the day that you're not thinking about something you just don't want other people to know what you're thinking about am i telling the truth you sit there like you stare in his face honey what are you thinking about nothing there's no nothing moments in our minds we're always thinking about something and on unfortunately Ellen and I wanna add another component is unfortunately sometimes we're thinking of how people need to change when God has sent us how we need to change sometimes we said I wouldn't be in the mess I'm in if the one for so-and-so no you wouldn't be in the mess you in if it wasn't for you go back to our first parents at the infancy of our world the power of choice was to get that God had given to Adam look at Genesis chapter 2 verse 16 God gave Adam the right to choose I didn't say Eve because God gave Adam stewardship he gave him stewardship over all creation and the destiny of humanity was based not on the choice that Eve made but on the choice that Adam made well you couldn't blame Eve Adam had a choice God gave him the right to make the choice Genesis 2 and verse 16 Genesis 2 and verse 16 and the Lord God commanded the man saying of every tree of the garden you may what freely eat in other words the choice to eat or not to eat was Adams but not only did God give him a choice he said and this is something that the devil does the devil says is there anything you can do and God says you can do anything but how amazing the Devil Makes be a good choice the abundance of the good choices of God the devil makes them look bad and the one bad choice the devil makes it look good and not amazing how does that happen if you if you follow the trek of these the tree was pleasant to the eyes a tree desirable to make one wise it was good for food pleasant to the eyes a tree desirable to make one wise she focused more on what God told her not to partake of than what God told her she could partake of it began with the focus and when we focus on what God tells us not to do one psychologist said I don't know how true this is I'm not a psychologist but I take the psychologists at their word because you know they're supposed to be the learner ones they said when you pray lord help me to stop smoking you know they said you're going to smoke one day one one said when you say lord help me not to eat this doughnut you're going to eat that doughnut have you seen in your children you say don't do that what do they do they do exactly what you tell them not to do because the human nature we have liens in the direction of disobedience because that's what we got from Adam God told Adam not to eat God informed Adam of the consequences of the wrong choice look at verse 17 Genesis chapter 2 but of the tree verse 17 of the knowledge of what good and evil you shall not eat for in the day that you eat of it you what shall surely die I spent a lot of time on that text not going to spend a lot of time on that this morning but I want to say it this way sin is not incidental here McKay sin is not incidental soon as the result of the choice we make based on our intentional rejection of the information that God has already given us let me say that again with a long sentence are you ready sin is not incidental sin is the result of the choice we make based on the intentional rejection of the information God has already given us you're going to die I reject that Lord I ain't going to die you untie I'm not going to die intentional rejection of God already told us is going to happen to confirm that go to James 4 verse 17 look at this confirmation of the statement the thesis has confirmed in James chapter 4 verse 17 notice what the Bible says when you reject information that God is when you intentionally choose to ignore what God told you is going to happen it's going to happen anyway James says to him who knows to do good how does he know God told him to him who knows to do good and does not do it together what to him it is sin so I have to Adam sinned God asked him a question that exposes the reality of information you see God's word you might have God's Word on your shelf let me say let me take God's Word on your shelf can keep you from sin God's Word in your heart can keep you from sin David said I wore dove I hid in my not a might not in my glove compartment not a my trunk come on not in my backpack it's amazing to me that okay I'm not going to go there let me stick with the topic when you look at Genesis chapter 3 and verse 11 God asked Adam a question that exposes the reality that Adam had information that he rejected and he chose to focus in a different direction look at verse 11 of chapter 3 and he said that as God said God came and found Adam hiding behind a bush big old 17 foot man 21 feet tall trying to hide behind a bush can you see it and God says he knows where he is Adam Adam where are you hit me hear that song in 3b and radio Adam Adam where are you God knew where adam was God wasn't asking for location God was asking for confession same way he said the Elijah Elijah what do is ah here same thing he said to join us what mean is thou o sleeper when God asks you where you are God ain't as if a GPS coordinates amen God's asking for heart condition where are you where are you on what I said so he comes to Adam let me go to Genesis I'm telling you go there 9 even there Genesis chapter 3 where are you Adam big burly God can you see this big muscle-bound he was a prototype of what every man want to be not tall dark and handsome mega tall no clogged arteries perfect vision a fully operating mind had more in his mind than we have in the most advanced mainframes today Adam was instantly intelligent when God pointed to the atoms to the animals God said Adam what is that Adam said that's an elephant Adam didn't go to school God built into him all the knowledge he needed Adam was more informed than us God comes to Adam where are you into verse 9 where are you and he said I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was what naked and I did what hid my self one of the symptoms that we make bad choices is we hide we hide what can you hide from God when I don't see people come to church and they run out of excuses they're hiding because they have made a choice that doesn't honor God and now they're naked and they don't want to be seen well what's so beautiful about the story is God didn't wait for Adam to come looking for him God in His love went looking for Adam you see when we mess up in our lives when we make bad choices God doesn't say John come to me he says John where are you he comes looking for us his love does not leave us even in the moments of bad choices his love does not leave us destitute fallen and naked he come where are you and Adam comes out and I like what he said in verse 11 this is a key that exposes the reality that we intentionally reject the information God has given to us and then we tune our ears to a different voice he says in verse 11 he said Adam who told you get this who told you who you've been listening to what have you been listening to who told you where are you getting your information who told you that you were naked have you eaten from the tree which I commanded you that you should not eat God knew all the answers to the questions but God wasn't asking questions for information God was asking questions for repentance and Adam was at the place that he could have repented but what did he say instead the woman you gave me men had been blaming women for years amen screen women I want to apologize on behalf of irresponsible men now let me tell you why I said that you think I'm making a joke I'm not making a joke God has called men to be the priests of their homes when you ain't a priest of your home that's an insult to God God has called you to lead your family and worship when you don't take those responsibilities that's an insult to God God appointed Adam as the priest and the steward of Earth he chose not to take the lead so the woman took the lead led him down the wrong path but he still had the choice and instead of saying Lord I blew it forgive me he blames God because he wouldn't have a woman unless God created her so he was saying God if you didn't create her I'd be all right I think that's where the songwriter got the idea it's me it's me it's me o lord standing in the need of prayer don't ever blame your bad choices on somebody else and eliminate the word mistake your mistake is when you type C instead of D that's a mistake that they don't make white out for the junk you do in your life it's called repentance and confession and determination and determination by God's grace not to do it again amen somebody some people got the idea and I'm going to be very I want to be very intentional today some people have the idea that we're going to be sinning up until the hour that Jesus comes that's the wrong concept of righteousness by faith you can blow a cigarette and ascend to heaven no not in not in God's economy if you are the seed at the seat of God's righteousness is in you he says my seed remains in you and you cannot sin you know that means he says he that has this hope purifies himself even as he is pure when Peter asked for the Lord to wash him totally the Lord's that you already clean I just need to work on the areas that are not yet where I need them to be and rather than you think and we talking about perfection of humanity I'm talking about the righteousness of Christ that sees us thank you Jesus that sees us on a moment by moment day by day basis when we choose to serve God he sees us in the righteousness of his son and you can't walk around saying well I'm a sin today and not sin tomorrow because you know I need to do that not only to do this no you don't need to do anything listen to what education the book says the book education page 23 verse 1 or paragraph 1 here it is through created though created innocent and holy our first parents were not placed beyond the possibility of wrongdoing God might have created them without the power to transgress his requirements but in that case the varakin had been no development of character let me pause right here you know there reason why you got good and bad choices right and wrong choices light and dark choices because God said you need to develop who you want to be that's why folks that don't decide to live right are not going to be in the kingdom god this idea that God's going to save everybody is a is a lie from the devil he's not putting people that don't want to serve him in heaven because heaven will be held for them you got to choose you got to make it I'm not going to do that God give me the strength to do that and what you discover is when you lean your will into God's will servant of the Lord says he immediately possesses us you enter about spiritual possession when you allow yourself to lean into God's will and like Jesus left a wonderful example he said not my will but what time be done every day you got to choose God's will but let me give you even some better good news when you choose God's will God doesn't say now go ahead and do that and do this oh no brethren that's not how it works God doesn't say do this and not do that God says all you got to do is choose to serve me and then God will come in and both will and do a mess of mine and he will will and do I got proof for that the demoniac was under the control of an evil spirit and the demoniac did what the evil spirit determined he would do when we are under the control of the Spirit of God they will be love joy peace long-suffering gentleness meekness patience we don't choose a fruit and say I'm working on the other ones because in the single fruit of the Spirit of God you got love joy peace long-suffering gentleness meekness patience God gave them the power to choose so that they develop character can I ask you doesn't it feel good when you do right not supposed to go on stealing but it feels good when you could go through the day and say lord I I did pretty good today I don't even do that I say Lord thank you for working through me listen to this their service would not have been voluntary but forced if God did not give them the power to choose therefore he gave them the power of choice the power to yield or withhold obedience and before they could receive in fullness the blessing he desired to impart their love and loyalty must be tested you don't put some body in a leadership position who hasn't been tested you don't drag somebody off the street and make them too CEO so the question is what is the purpose of this life the purpose of the Christian walk is character development and that's something you got to choose to do but if self is in the way then you'll be like you'll be like a body that's at odds with itself some people have diseases let's fight against their own immune system when we are out of harmony with God sin will fight against the battle that is taking place with it within us to put self to death we've got to put self to death only when self is put to death can we understand what it means to live a single day giving God the glory I've been talking to my wife lately we sit down we have some serious conversations I looked at my wife's eyes and said yesterday we you know we taught we read our Bible and then begin to be discussions I said honey you know what here's the kind of life I want to live I don't want to be a good singer I don't want to be a good preacher I want to be a good Bible study guy I want to be a good Christian and I said to her honey it's been 34 years but here's the kind of life that I have covenant it with God if I go to bed tonight and don't wake up I'm going to see you in the first resurrection and we both sat stood there and cried together that's the kind of life that's the kind of assurance you want to have that if you close your eyes tonight and tomorrow morning didn't come for you you've made a choice today you made a choice when today let me show you how simple this when you make a choice to serve God and you repent he cleanses you from all unrighteousness he imputes you and imparts to you his righteousness that's why the thief on the cross who never gave a Bible study has the guarantee that when Jesus comes he will be with him in paradise you don't have to live 45 months in good standing you got to be in standing with God today Joshua said choose you today whom you will serve and I want to make it even clearer we don't choose the circumstances of life but we choose how we respond to the circumstances of life in ministry of healing page 176 listen what Ellen White says God's servant God has given us the power of choice it is ours to exercise but I love what she says here we cannot change our hearts don't stay home trying to get clean and present yourself before God because you can't clean you up we cannot change our hearts we cannot control our thoughts now you know why your thoughts all over the place we cannot control our impulses we cannot control our affections we cannot make ourselves pure fit for God's service but here's what she says but we can choose to serve God we can give him our will and then he will work in us to will and to do according to his good pleasure thus our whole nature will be brought under the control of Christ in that good news you trying to fix your thoughts you trying to control your impulses you're trying to change your sex and you're trying to clean your heart you cannot do that supposed to give me time so I'll clean some things up it's like saying I have I have a bad heart let me work on my heart before I have heart surgery then you're going to work you see the power of life is in God's hands but the power of choice is completely in our look at Deuteronomy 30 verse 19 go there quickly with me Deuteronomy 30 verse 19 Lord says I call heaven and earth as a witness today against you that I have set before you what life and death sits on the screen what else blessing and cursing therefore look at God's goodness what does he say choose lives that both you and your descendants may live got to choose life my brother he's dead now I had a I have a real brother that is by birth and by blood but I had a brother that was by association I was raised by an Adventist lady who adopted a son in Trinidad and brought him over to America he was the only brother I knew but he's fought with alcoholism when he got alcohol in him you had to plug your ears with cotton there was not a profane word he couldn't find and he became violent he lives in Queens past the CA he lives in Queens we lived in Brooklyn whenever he got drunk he get on the a train he's supposed to switch at at the West 4th Street for the F train knows our J Street in Bravo hall passes he know what I'm talking about but for the other chain one night he woke up and he said to the conductor when is this train going to leave the station the conductor said you've been on this train for three and a half ours we've been at the same stop three times already there's a lesson in the story two stops of the train were determined before he got on board so if you don't want to stop at a certain place in your life don't make the choice to get on board did you notice it in other words don't make a bad choice expecting good results don't decide against God expecting God to bless you don't tell me live in darkness and you wonder why God ain't pouring out blessings in your life don't say Lord I am NOT going to follow your word and expect God to bless you through his word we got to make choices I don't know of any parents that's going to say this that's going to say to the child that comes in the house with a gun sticking out the back pocket give me the car keys and appearances here they are guns sticking out the back pocket I need your car I'm gonna rob a bank tonight give me the keys here they are on the table when you're done I'll just bring it back without any holes in it we don't reward children for disobedience and God does not reward us either but what you need to know on the other hand when we choose to serve God no matter what situation you're in thank you Jesus God can deliver you Daniel ended up in the lion's den because of obedience but Daniel's testimony from the king he said he will deliver us from your hand the Hebrew said the God we serve is able to deliver us even if he chooses not to we are gonna choose to serve Him why do bad things happen to good people God doesn't always reverse your health situation but you got a guarantee of the first resurrection that's good enough for me my wife says in steps to Christ desire for goodness and holiness all right as far as they go but if you stop here you will avail nothing many will be lost while hoping and desiring to be Christians they do not come to the point of yielding the will to God they do not now choose to be Christians you got to choose to be a Christian you can't hope one day that you're going to get in the kingdom well I like it's an exploitation from book Child Guidance I hope you don't mind me reading some inspired quotations to you child guidance page 209 listen to this I thank God for this everyone may place his will on the side of the will of God and may choose to obey Him and by thus linking himself with divine agencies huh Lord he may stand where nothing can force him to do evil nothing how much nothing when God has when you put on the whole armor of God in the morning when you get up and you start the day on your knees and in God's word and your fortified alibi says only those who are fortified by the word of God will stand in the last great conflict you cannot ignore a light and wonder why you're walking in darkness you can ignore God's voice and wonder why you fall every time you got to make choices you make choices why not make the right choice because if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord look at your ancestors look at our 40-year journey look at what God has done in your lives look at where you are today look at how God has delivered you look at how he was provided for you look at that in spite of the bad choices you made you're still alive to make a good one if it seems evil to you choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve whether the gods which your father's served for the gods of the amorite in whose land you dwell but today I want to make the declaration but as for me in my house together we will serve the Lord we will serve the Lord just recently my wife and I were getting on a plane to come back home I always laugh when they do this and I said honey I may use that in my sermon they said everybody's checked in and we're about to close the doors if st. Louis is not your final destination this is a good time to get off come on somebody remember that if st. Louis is not your final destination this is a good time to get off oh I'm gonna peel is where you're headed [Music] if not what you want your final destination to be today is a good time to get on is this somebody here today and she'll play softly that once prayer to this morning they want to come down and say father I need a better final destination and on to be nearer to you than I've been before and today I'm exercising my power to choose [Music] I don't want to postpone nor do I want to forfeit the life that you have for me I don't want to choose death I want to choose life and I'm gonna make that choice today and if my eyes closed tonight and I don't get up tomorrow I want to be in the first respiration is there somebody here today that's smart enough to choose that destiny that road I'm choosing today I'm choosing today God is saying to you today there's a door I want you to walk through but the other choice is dead I'm calling you today to choose life sometimes we choose death because we don't know what it means to choose life and there's a door they are waiting for us to walk through I heard a story that just so revolutionized my life about a general of a Persian army and he would always give his prison of the choice of their method of death he said firing squad for the black door most of them chose the firing squad because they didn't know what was behind the black door and they said man if he ain't shown it to me it's got to be worse than the firing squad well what could be worse than being shot dead but the prisoners were never told what was behind the black door so they chose the firing squad somebody came to the general said what's behind the black door he said freedom this is in all my years of being a general I only know a few men that were brave enough to choose the unknown today I'm asking you God is asking you to commit the unknown to the known God God's not asking you to figure out how you're going to live God is saying today choose life it's behind this door behold he's standing at the door today and knocking somebody's got to make eternal decisions somebody's got a Satan the devil want to hold some of you in your seat he wants to say to some of you you can't do it you can't do it you can't do you messed up you can't do it look at your life you can't do it that's the devil talking to you say Lord I rebuke that I know I could do it by your strength I'm not too dirty to stand up I'm not doing worthy to give my life to the Lord if you think you unworthy that's why God wants you to stand so he can make you by his righteousness worthy today Sabine's standing up I'm encourage you now to stand up stand up for Jesus break the shackles that bind you break the shackles that have been holding you for years you don't have to worry about what's behind the door just say Lord I know what the firing squads going to be it's certain then come up on my life in your hand and walk through the door but I don't know about the door of uncertainty leads to a certain God our heads about are either close Father in heaven [Music] we've been choosing all our lives all of our lives we've been making choices and frankly some of us are sick of ourselves when we look at the choices we've made when we look back at the ridiculous decisions the crazy choices the things that if we had a chance to all do all over again we would never make that choice we've argued with ourselves we've beat ourselves up we've we have been angry with ourselves but today Lord this is not a beat me up session this is a stand up for Jesus session God's not condemning you any more than he condemned the woman any more than he condemned the paralytic any more than he condemned those who come to him whoever comes to me he says I will in no wise cast out the father today day Lord Jesus we're standing because it's the best choice we can make to put our lives in the hand of a God who wants us to be in his kingdom by his side walking in a perfect sinless environment and being blessed in every step we take in this life to live with the assurance of salvation to live with the assurance that I am saved by your grace possess us today Lord may your Holy Spirit come in and turn us inside out filter us file us down there's only one desire Joshua said it but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord I'm so glad Lord I don't have to figure out how to do that you're going to come in you're going to possess me you're going to work your will in me and then you're going to work it through me [Music] I'm no good father but you're nothing but good I'm unrighteous but you are nothing but righteousness [Music] so today I throw myself on your mercy on your Grace on your goodness as your people stand here today Lord we've made a decision heaven has recorded it and Hale has taken notice of it but when we leave this place of worship today help us not to leave trying to figure it out that we have to do the next thing but we leave here today determined that now we're giving you the power to do what we could never have done and we have the assurance that he who has begun a good work in us is going to complete it father continue working that we may see you in peace so as we are dismissed father bless us keep us guide us strengthen us may your king to be furnished with soul saved by grace because we have chosen today to serve you this we pray this we thank you for this we give you the glory for in Jesus holy and precious name we pray [Music] you

Channel: Thompsonville Seventh-day Adventist Church

Views: 17,052

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Id: 9touKxrUiMc

Length: 59min 40sec (3580 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 05 2017