The Choices We Make T McCleskey 08152021

um oh okay thank you oh thank you uh [Music] a [Music] friend i need someone who will never let you die oh [Music] and they don't only say they show it we'd like to welcome you to the sunday morning services of the schroederlane church of christ we're so glad that you're here with us today and we are excited about being here in person those of us who are we know that many many more of you are listening to us via streaming and we're just happy that we're all able to be together to worship the lord we look forward to having a wonderful day of of singing and of praising god of fellowshipping with one another and hearing a powerful lesson from his word before we begin this morning i have a few announcements to make sunday our announcements today we have many thank you notes that have been received from the following members in appreciation for the acts of kindness during the illness of their loved ones we have a a thank you note from the family of senator thelma harper and i know she passed away several months ago but we did receive a recent thank you note from her family from the family of yvonne gray from the family of linda phillips and for the family of maya lehman fryerson so they just wanted to thank you so much for for all that you've done for them also we continue to extend our sympathy and condolences to pamela james daughter michelle seventh services were held yesterday here at the schroeder lane church of christ we also would like to extend our condolences to sister lily cougar she lost her nephew john swefford yesterday in on friday i'm sorry in memphis uh please pray for her and for their family as they uh mourn the death of their of their loved one uh we also would like you to continue to pray for our brother alton greene uh brother green is in hospice but they ask that there be no visitors at this time so please just pray for him but no visitors at this time the elders would like to stress that if possible when giving your contribution or offering please do so electronically that makes it much safer and easier for us to do or you can mail it to schrader lane church of christ at p.o box 281048 nashville 3728 or if giving at one one of our in-person services please give to one of the ushers at the end of the service as you exit and again it's much easier if you can give electronically we really appreciate you doing that also to members if giving in person on sunday and you would like to receive a year in tax summary please use the 2021 contribution offering envelopes those needing a box of contribution offering envelopes can find them located at one of the information desk in the front foyer from the college ministry the iconnect college ministry they would like to welcome all of our college students with a special meet and greet with the ministry leaders chris and angel berry on sunday august 22nd and sunday august 29th please come to the training room between our morning services to grab your to-go lunch while supplies last on the 22nd and the 28th we we look forward to connecting with you if you're in need of communion you may stop by on any saturday between 8 30 and 11 30 come into the first four floor foyer lobby and pick up the grab and go basket so if you're in need of communion for uh taking at your home location uh you can stop by here on any saturday between 8 30 and 11 30 a.m and and pick and pick that up if you're in need of prayers please contact us monday through saturday 6 a.m or on sunday at the conclusion of the 9 15 worship service and again you can dial not i'm sorry 712-775 access code 256138 or feel free to email us at prayer request at schraderlane.org and we also want to acknowledge this morning that we have some visitors we have paula greer here with us today if you're here would you please stand and let us welcome you thank you there she is in the back and we also have richard hart thank you so much for being here today and there may be others of you visiting uh and we'll try to find out who you are and acknowledge you before the end of the service those are the announcements i have for this morning let's go to our heavenly father in prayer our god and father in heaven we are so thankful that we're able to be here today we're so thankful that we can come before you whether we're here in person or whether we're here through streaming that we can come before your throne of grace and acknowledge you as our god and our father and praise you and worship you in spirit and in truth father we thank you so much for the powerful and wonderful ways that you have worked in our lives and that you continue to work in our lives you've brought us through many difficult moments through many difficult times and we thank you so much for doing that father we thank you so much for just walking with us every day for keeping us close to you and for giving us the comfort and the hope and the peace that we are yours and that we belong to you our god and father we pray for those in our congregation who are suffering the loss of loved ones we pray for the james family and for all of those who are mourning the death of sister hester and father we pray for sister con cougar and her family in the death of her nephew and father we pray this morning for brother greene and for others who are suffering physically lord we pray that you would comfort them that you would bless them that you would be with those who are caring for them and that you would just give them peace at this time in their lives father we pray that this worship this morning will be powerful that it would be meaningful that we would hear a powerful lesson from your word and we would be moved to act more as you would have us father we pray that as we sing songs of praise to you that we would sing from our hearts that we would sing with a enthusiasm as we worship you and praise you and father that you would just bless this time together as we remember the death and burial and resurrection of your servant your son jesus christ and father we just pray that you would be with us throughout this day lord we love you we thank you we honor you we praise you and we ask all of these things in jesus name amen good morning good morning it's a great morning uh this sunday and there's no better place to be on a sunday morning than in the house of the lord is that right all right so we are here and it's my prayer i appreciate brother turner's prayer he said his prayers that we lift our voices with enthusiasm in song as we praise our god remember god is the audience god is the audience so your mask should be vibrating as you've seen you know all right let us sing bow down before the lord worship him worship him bow down before the lord worship him oh worship him bow down bow down before our god [Music] bow down before the lord bow down before the [Music] worship him bow down bow down before [Music] consuming this room [Music] and this is holy ground so come in and bow down before the lord and worship him worship him more worship bow down before our god bow down before i go [Music] [Applause] he's and this is [Music] oh bow down bow down bow down bow oh come let us adore him oh come let us adore him let us adore him oh come let us adore him the lord bow down bow down [Applause] bow down bow down [Applause] we'll praise his name forever we'll praise his name for it forever and ever we'll praise his name forever and we'll praise his name forever [Music] worship him bow down before oh in turn [Music] we have now come to the offering we've reminded in second corinthians chapter 9 verse 7 that when we come to offer for the administration of the saints and for the services of the church that we should not offer with a grudgingly heart or of necessity but god expects us to give cheerfully with that thought in mind let us go to god in prayer father god in heaven we come before you at this time we come thankful for this opportunity to give we thank you dear lord for just allowing us the jobs and our health dear lord to be able to bring in funds for the administration of the saints and for the working of of your gospel father god we pray to the lord that the money be used for the edification of your kingdom it is in your son jesus christ's name we do pray and ask all amen isaiah chapter 53 verse 5 says but he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement for our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed we come before you this time to remember the sacrifice that was given our lord and savior jesus christ came down and died for the remission of our sins we have the emblems before us let us go before god and give thanks father god in heaven we come before you at this time the lord we come clear in our hearts and minds to focus to the cross we come thanking you for your son jesus christ who came down who knew not sin but became sin for us we come with the bread that reminds us of the body that was beaten and bruised for our iniquities we come with the fruit of the vine reminding us of the blood that was shed for the remission of sins we thank you to the lord for the sacrifice we thank you jesus for loving us we thank you god for the love that was shown that you gave your only begotten son and in his name we do pray and ask all amen so how great is our god how great is our god sing with me how great it is our god the splendor of a king clothed in majesty let all the earth rejoice and all the earth he wraps himself in life and darkness tries to hide and trembles at his voice and trembles as foreign how great is how is [Music] me is great is good morning a scripture reading will be taken from joshua chapter 24 verses 14 through 18. that's joshua 24 verses 14 through 18. now therefore fear the lord and serve him with sincerity and in truth and put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the flood and in egypt and serve you the lord and it seemed if it seems evil unto you to serve the lord choose you this day whom you will serve whether the gods which your father served that was on the other side of the flood are the gods of the amorites and whose land ye dwell but as for me and my house we will serve the lord and the people answered and said god forbid that we should forsake the lord to serve other gods for the lord our god he it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of egypt from the house of bondage which did thou great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the ways wherein we went and among all the people through whom we passed and the lord draved out from before us all the people even the amorites which dwelt in the land therefore will we also serve the lord he is our god church say amen all right all right all the glory belongs to you oh god oh god let us sing all the glory belongs to you all the glory belongs to you oh god oh god all the glory belongs to you all the glory belongs to you oh all the glory belongs all the glory belongs to you all the glory belongs to god all the glory belongs to you oh god oh god [Music] yeah all the glory belongs to you all the glory belongs to you oh god oh god all the glory belongs to all the glory belongs all the glory belongs to your oh [Applause] hallelujah [Music] hallelujah [Music] oh [Music] sing it again we lift our forces [Applause] [Music] church say man amen nobody like you lord there's nobody like you lord is that right you do you agree with me all right all right uh there is none like god none like our father that's my earthly father but there's none like my heavenly father there's nobody like him either let me tell you but we can all agree that there's no one like our heaven our heavenly father who sits on high oh nobody like you lord nobody like you there is nobody like you lord nobody like you lord nobody there is nobody like you lord nobody like you lord your name is strength and your name oh it is your name strong tower [Laughter] there is nobody like you lord nobody like you love singing there is [Applause] your [Music] a strong tower makes me safe so we call on your name saying lord [Laughter] there is nobody back to the verse your name is strength and your name is the strong tower makes me say listen to those words your name in your name is strength [Music] oh nobody likes nobody like you say man thank you brother mccluskey for leading us in those songs and doing an outstanding job and all of you for being here and joining in with the singing the praises lifted up to god and i witnessed the same thing there's nobody like our lord he's strength he's power he's a strong tower for all of us and we thank god for giving us the privilege to be here in his presence and in the presence of one another and we also thank god for those who are joining us by the electronic means that we have available today to worship realizing the circumstances in the country and in the world in which we we dwell in a lot of good things are happening and someone would say and even in the midst of all the bad things yes in the midst of all the bad things there are always some good things that are happening and we want to acknowledge them as well we have to live with the good and the bad and when we sing that song nobody like you lord he's strength he's power he's a tower he's going to help us to deal with all of those things that are uncomfortable for us don't want to talk very very long this morning i pulled out a sermon out of my head and worked it out and then when i looked at it real carefully i said you know i i did this about a year and a half ago but it's going to be a little different and i hope that the difference makes a difference to you as well it all comes from god's word and my understanding of what god wants us to do let us remember to pray for all people all over the world because the world is suffering and particularly the people down in haiti they just had another earthquake there they had won in 2010 and several of us from the church went down with a medical group from chicago on a couple occasions and we do have a brother here who is from haiti his family lives in the city where the earthquake quake was close i don't know if the epicenter of the earthquake was exactly in that place but we need to pray for the people in haiti we are supporting people there in haiti they are in the northern portion of the country a good distance away i'm pretty sure they felt the earthquake and you have to recognize that in haiti it it they call it a third world country but the structures there are not as strong as the structures here and you have to be mindful of that and many of them are not designed for earthquake loading and no doubt i want you to understand that many of the structures we have here in nashville are not designed for earthquake loading and so we will need to pray for them and if such a disaster will occur here which seismologists say will occur many of the structures here would fall too and people will lose their lives so let's pray for them let's pray for all the people who have been infected anew with this virus this variant that is out there that's uh hospitalizing a lot of people and the hospitals are filled up intensive care units i understand just about field everywhere so let's continue to pray for our people that we will use good judgment that we will make some great choices with regards to that we know that in our country there's a lot of freedom and and people want to do what they want to do without regards for the consequences of it which are quite obvious to most everybody so let us keep praying and asking god to be with us as we go on i want you to hang around just a little bit after we as we end the service because there is a young lady who wants to give her life to the lord she's already indicated that to me and i've talked with her a little bit and we will hopefully get to meet her as we come to the conclusion of this message on on today so we're going to talk about making the choices we make all people make choices you made a choice this morning a lot of choices undoubtedly but some of those choices are are important and some are not important some of our choices have lasting impact and others will have little or no impact whatsoever our choices reflect who we are as individuals i believe and people make choices for for various reasons as i study the bible i see people making choices for various reasons and i know we make our own choices for various reasons i'm i'm mindful of the people who stop following the lord and in john the 6th chapter and verse 66 the bible says for at that time many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more then jesus says to the twelve do you want to go away also jesus had said some things to them that were difficult for them to understand and they could not accept it like he said except you eat the flesh of my flesh and drink my blood you have no life in you and and that was difficult for them to comprehend or understand what he was talking about and so they said they they didn't walk with him anymore and then on another occasion if we go on down to the 12th chapter of john verses 42 and 43 the bible says nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in him but because of the pharisees they did not confess him lest they should be put out of the synagogue for they love the praise of men more than the praise of god and some people do things because they love the praise of men and we see in this particular illustration here from the text back in that first century they wouldn't confess jesus christ and it is required of us to confess him to acknowledge him wherever we are and don't don't get confused about that that's not the confession that you make when you become a christian we have to acknowledge that we are god's people we are his people and we believe he is and that he is on high at the right hand uh our savior is at the right hand of our god and father in heaven but it said they love the praise of men more than the praise of god and i believe we are here because we love the praise of god in my lifetime i made some good choices and i made some bad choices but the goal in this journey of life is to make the best choices all the time so our lesson today we'll examine the important choices made by several well-known figures in the scriptures and considering the time we might not get through all of them but i think if you're a student of the bible you will recognize that there have been many choices that are put before us in the scriptures to help us to understand the kind of choices that we should make i want to first start out with one of my favorite characters joshua his name means the lord is salvation he was the successor to moses after his death he led the children of israel across the jordan river into canaan and conquered canaan and made distribution of the land there to the 12 tribes of the children of israel and he did a a real good job there there were a few hiccups in his his leadership as he was leading the uh the children of israel he became as a young man the assistant to moses now i think that's very important because i want to say something to our young people our children here who are in our audience here at the church building and those who are listening at home joshua became an assistant to moses as a young man and when moses would go up into the mountain to talk to the lord he would take joshua with him now he wouldn't take joshua all the way but he would take joshua with him because i believe as a young man joshua had made some real good choices in his life i'm pretty sure he obeyed his parents i'm pretty sure he listened carefully to what they had to say and no doubt if they were aware of the promises that god had made to their ancestors they talked about that the promises god had made to abraham isaac and jacob and and telling joshua that through the seed of abraham all the people in the world would be blessed and i'm pretty sure that was a wonder to them all the people in the world are going to be blessed through the seed of my ancestors so joshua as a as a young man assistant to moses made some important choices he made some right choices he made the best choices when moses would go outside the camp to his tent you know moses pissed his tent outside the camp they called it the tent of meeting and when moses would go out there to talk to god the pill of clouds would come over there and the people of israel will observe it but joshua stayed in the tabernacle to assist moses while he was out there communing with god and we can read all about this in the scriptures in his life he made right choices so i want to say to all of our young people make right choices now those of you who are in school you're dependent children that is all of your means and all you are taken care of by your parents right now so you need to learn to make the right choices now because if you make the right choices now it's going to be highly beneficial to you as you go on in life you will look back over your life and rejoice because you made the right choices so i'm going to encourage you to make sure that you obey your parents don't be a rebel your parents got more sense than you have now i'm not saying that to talk down to you i want you to know that they have a great deal of information that you don't have they understand a lot of things that you don't understand now you might know that some say understand some things that they don't understand like these little cell phones now we you might understand more about that but that doesn't mean anything let me tell you they know a whole lot more than you know about living and what life is all about so i'm going to encourage you to listen to your parents and don't rebel against them when they tell you to do something that you don't want to do just smile and go ahead and do it i learned that as a young man a young boy growing up my father always i thought gave me some ridiculous things to do and i thought that he could do some things that that he asked me to do like he would say give me a glass of water why can't you get the glass of water but i got the glass of water with a smile and you know my father liked that he liked that and when i asked him if i could do certain things you know he was more favorable to me than one of my brothers who always learn to obey your parents and and it will be a great reward to you later on in life there was one thing my father always wanted me to do he he wanted me to wash his car i washed cars a lot of times it seems like several times a week and i was so mad one day when it was freezing outside and he told me to go wash his car i just couldn't understand that at all but i washed the car and cleaned it up real good and there wasn't a choice of doing a half job you had to do a perfect job so children obey your parents obey your parents the bible says in the lord for this is right listen to me obey your parents in the lord for this is right this is ephesians the fifth chapter but somebody would say he says in the lord he didn't say about going getting a glass of water paul thinks that in colossians the third chapter he says children obey your parents in everything now that doesn't mean in doing things wrong but he into inclu it requires you to obey your parents so joshua learned to do some things right as a young man as a faithful assistant of moses he didn't do some of the foolish things like native and abu you good students of the bible know that native and bahu were sons of aaron aaron and his descendants were the priests and the high priests of israel they offered strange fire fire that the lord had not commanded and god destroyed them with fire so just keep that in mind may they have been a value although they were of the priestly family and would serve in the tabernacle they did something wrong and god was displeased with it and every time young people you do something wrong and foolish god is not pleased with it now you might be getting away with some stuff but god is not pleased with it so make the right choices like joshua did he was a young man who followed the lord when we think about joshua we we like to go to the 24th chapter of the book of joshua from which our scripture was read when joshua was an old man he had already led the children of israel across the jordan river they had possessed the land of canaan although they didn't possess it all because the people were still there and the lord told them to drive them all out some were still there which became a thorn into their flesh in their flesh and caused them to do a lot of things that that god didn't want them to do but when he was an old man and so he pulled the leaders of israel together and and he summarized uh the history of the descendants of abraham from abraham's father torah up to that present time and then he he he told them you know you need to put away these gods that your fathers worship over in in uh uh on the other side of the river the euphrates river the the the tigris river you need to put away those gods and and and the gods that they worship out there in the wilderness and the and the gods of the ammonites and to worship the lord god and then joshua joshua said you know choose this day whom you will serve he started out by saying if it seems evil to you to serve the lord choose this day whom you will serve the gods of your fathers gods are the amorites in the land you dwell in now those gods across the river the jordan river there then he said but for me and my house we're going to serve the lord now whenever i think about joshua i think about those wonderful words that that he gave as for me and my house we're going to serve the lord if you're head of a household i hope that you can say that also that you made that choice i know sometimes it might be difficult if you have a spouse who is not wanting to serve the lord but i hope that you are working toward that and can be able to say as for me and my house we're going to serve the lord first of all joshua spoke for himself as for me i'm going to serve the lord and every man of the household ought to have that have already made that choice if you a are a member of the body of christ as for me and then he says as for my household you see joshua obviously made some real good decisions and had respect of other people and those in his household they were not rebelling against him and so he could say confidently as for me and my house we will serve the lord the history we have of joshua indicates his faith and trust in god and i think that is one of the keys to making the right choices all the time those important things that we have to make decisions about is our faith and our trust in god how much do you trust the lord is a very important thing and so that's one of the secrets to to making good choices young people old people middle-aged people women men every all of us is our faith in god what god has said he would do for us and what god said is going to be the end result and our trust in him fulfilling the promises that he made joshua we trusted the lord i know this is true because when when we read uh further on in the scriptures uh the children of israel came to um the canaan land as as moses was leading them from across the red sea into the wilderness and up to canaan and moses chose 12 men from or 12 men were selected to go out and spout the land you know the story they went and spout out the land they took them 40 days to do that and they came back 10 of them gave a bad report said we can't take it these people like giants we look like grasshoppers to them but there were two caleb and joshua said no no with the help of the lord we can go up there and conquer the land now how in the world was joshua able to to make that kind of choice how whenever all the other people joshua was yet a young man he was an old man he hadn't lived a long time but he and caleb said we can take the land we can we can conquer it how did how did he come to that conclusion how do you make that choice i believe because he had faith in god and what god had said and that he would be faithful to it he trusted him remember one of the requirements of of god gave to the children of israel is that when you get around the table talk about the things that are important tell your children uh about what god has done for your ancestors and the promises he has made relate to them the law that i have given you and i believe joshua as a youngster with his family heard all of that and he believed god and that's what we have to do we have to believe god but not only must we believe god but we must trust him scripture says in hebrews 11 and 6 without faith is impossible to be well pleasing to god so all of us must have faith and his faith comes from hearing god's word so we have to know god's word to to fortify and strengthen our faith and we have to trust god the wise man solomon wrote in his proverbs the third chapter verses five and six trust in the lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your path the children of israel have a struggle as they move throughout their history because of one thing they didn't trust god as they ought to and we have to be people who trust god we have to be people who trust god and when we trust god we're going to make some real good decisions always choose to serve the lord young people and i wanted to say that because i don't know how many college students we have here i don't know how many are listening in and perhaps some of our children from this congregation or in other towns and i hope you are listening in also so i want to say to you at this time always choose to serve the lord in good times and in bad times all year round when distress and greed and i know if you're a college student and when test time comes around that's a very stressful time sometimes when you're sick and when you're healthy choose to serve the lord when you're persecuted when people talk about you when things don't go the way you would like for them to go serve the lord when you're highly favored and things are going well serve the lord when you're employed and when you're unemployed serve the lord when you're young and old and in between serve the lord when you make more money than you need serve the lord and as our uh minister emeritus used to say when you in outflow exceeds your inflow serve the lord when exalted and humiliated serve the lord when in school and out of school serve the lord when you your business is thriving and when it is failing serve the lord when family life is good and when it's bad serve the lord so let your choice always be to serve the lord and that's an important thing that i want to point out to you about choices this morning the next thing i want to say is never make sin your choice time is going pretty fast never make sin your choice i wanted to talk about moses just a little bit because the bible tells us that moses refused to be called the son of pharaoh's daughter choosing rather to suffer affliction with the children of god than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season now moses could have enjoyed all the pleasures of sin in egypt that egypt had to offer as the son of pharaoh's daughter moses could have rose to a position of high authority in egypt for a young ambitious man that would be quite a temptation but the bible says moses chose rather to suffer affliction with the children of god rather to enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season moses was enabled to give up the power the honor the wealth and the pleasure of egypt and make his choice to suffer affliction with the people of god because he was walking by faith i know that to be true because hebrews 11 verses 24 through 26 says by faith moses did that we know that faith comes from hearing god's word so moses knew the promises of god to his ancestors and to himself and look forward to his reward when we walk by faith our choices will not be influenced by this world's standards now listen to that when we walk by faith our choices will not be influenced greatly by this world standards we know what the world's standards are but we pass them all they might be attractive at some times but we have another standard by which we are guided by so we are guided by the living and abiding word of god when we walk by faith our choice is about the heavenly reward of what god has promised to us and we're going to speed on here this is the last one hopefully we can get through this right quick most of you all are familiar with luke the 15th chapter here there are i believe four parables and we're going to briefly talk about the one we call the prodigal son we know a man jesus told this parable because he told it to show how much he wanted everybody to be saved and the parables in that whole chapter is about saving people about people being saved and and so he tells this parable about a man who had two sons a young son older son young son said father give me my inheritance and and that was always a shocking thing to me uh he came up and he asked for his inheritance and the father being a compassionate father uh gave him i believe prematurely and this was for for illustration purposes his youngest son his inheritance who wasted it in falling in a foreign land and then he finds himself feeding hogs disgraced famished and wanting to eat hulk food that's a sad picture right there look at the choice he made he said give me my inheritance and what he did was he left his father's house went into a foreign land wasted his money in righteous living and when he got broke nobody helped him so only thing he could find to do was a job feeding hogs and it was so bad he wanted to eat the hog's food now that's that shows that he made a real real bad he made a whole lot of bad choices it started when he wanted to get away from his father's house now take the father's house as being the family of god the church and if you out there and young and you want to get away from the church i saw a little video of a little bitty boy about eight years old and they were trying to encourage him to to say some kind of speech and they gave him the might and you know what he said i'm tired of church well the church is god's family it's the family of god and if you're not in the church if you're not in god's family where are you going to hear right stuff where are you going to hear somebody who's going to tell you what you ought to be doing with respect to what god wants us to do you're not going to hear that anywhere else i hope somebody changes his mind i don't know why he said that but he's a little boy he got a lot of time to be changed i pope laughed at it but but i know for a lot of young people you're just glad to get away from the house so you can do what you want to do but that was his biggest mistake right there the choice that he want i want to get away from my father's house so never leave the church never leave the family of god satan will zap you up and you'll make a whole lot of bad choices in life so don't lead the family of god in his predicament he began to think about home he was after a feeding house now for a jewish boy that was terrible because a swine a hog or pig was an unclean animal now he had to go mingle with that and he wanted to eat the food you know i used to feed when i was a boy growing up my father had some hogs some of you all had the same experience i had to feed those hogs and hogs you couldn't even get the food in the trough before the hog was climbing all over the place and sometimes i poured the food hog food on top of the hog's head and i remember one time the hog it angered me so bad i had a stick i hit the hog as hard as i could and he fell over on his back with his legs sticking up scared me to death the best news for me was when he got back up on his feet i don't know what i was going to tell my daddy about that i probably was going to tell some kind of lie but because i don't know what i was that's just the way it was he wanted to eat hulk food the stuff you give hogs when i was in the military when you would go to the mess hall and each day the food that was left over was put in 55 gallon barrels outside for farmers farmers would come and pick it up they call it garbage feeding from my my days as a new farmer of america i remember that and they call it garbage feeding because it's the stuff that's all left over from from human uh eating and and they had to have ovens to heat the garbage food up to a certain temperature to kill all the bacteria when when you see that stuff you you think how in the world would somebody want to get down there and eat that kind of food he had made a bad decision and it put him in that predicament that he had to lower himself to wanting to eat whole foods that's a terrible thing so you got to make wise choices young people all of us have to make wise choices or we'll be putting the same kind of predicament so this young man began to think about home he predicted his in home and how foolish and selfish and sinful his decision was to make his inheritance to take his inheritance and waste it in sin and folly now that he is disgraced and his his father is shade and so that's what happens you'll be disgraced by some of these decisions choices you make and not only will you be disgraced but we all will be disgraced because people will say yeah they should go away straight away you know you know or your family will be disgraced with a penalty and humble heart he mustered enough energy to return to his father's house confess his sin against god and his father and asked to be received back as a servant first he made a terrible choice and he had to suffer for it but the bible says to me that god is long-suffering not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance and god was long-suffering to him and and and when we pray we ought to ask thank the lord for being long-suffering for being patient with us because he's been patient with all of us i know he has been patient with me so he went back home he he he made a bad choice and then he made the best choice that he could make there was no better choice to make he could have said i'm just going to stay out here i'm going to do something else but he started thinking in his heart as to as to what he needed to do and he said i can go back home because there is a father there i believe if he hears my contrite heart if he sees it he's going to receive me back and he says you don't have to take me back as a son just take me back as a servant and we know the story he took him back isn't it wonderful after we mess up sometimes that we can make the right choices and the god will put us back where we were isn't that wonderful most families won't want to do that but god if you leave the lord and you come back the lord has opened his arms openly and said come on back and this father when he saw his son coming he recognized him and he went and greeted him and hugged him and kissed him and put a robe on him a new robe and some shoes on his feet a ring on his finger and called for a feast because his son had made the right choice and had come home you know when you make the right choice there's going to be rejoicing some people might not rejoice but there's going to be rejoice and i know because the bible says there is rejoicing in heaven over one senate that repented that 99 just people who don't need to repent and so finally i want to say i want to give some guidelines for consideration in making choices use the word of god to guide your choices please do that that means you need to have a good working knowledge of god's word and a submissive will to be guided by it use god's word to make your choices scripture says whatsoever you do whether in word or deed do all in the name of the lord jesus giving thanks to god the father through him you can't go out there and sin in the name of the lord jesus you can't make a bad decision in the name of the lord jesus so whatever you do do it be guided by god's word peter and john told the leaders of the jewish leaders we ought to obey god rather than man and you're going to be challenged to obey god or not to obey god so have a spirit to obey god the choices that involve violation of the law of god that is sin is not an option for christians it's not an option lying is not an option for christians sexual immorality is not an option for christians hating your brother is not an option for christian gossiping is not an option for christians forsaking to worship the lord is not an option for christians just recognize that that any sin is not an option for christians now somebody said brother because we are not perfect that's right we are not we are not we i want to say that we say we are not uh perfect that's right we we we are not sinless but we we live our lives not to see it we are in a sense perfect through jesus christ and that's where our perfection comes and i want people to understand when people say we are not sinless that is not a license to sin that doesn't mean that on occasion you have the opportunity to sin so get that out of your head the whole objective is to make the best choice all the time and the best choice all the time is to obey god faith and trust in god enables one to make the right choices get and understand all the important facts then choose give wise counsel get wise counsel when making choices no matter which uh the matters which you have little knowledge or understanding choose what is right in the sight of god choosing what is right in the sight of god may cause you to suffer and i just want you to understand that your choice should not harm other people or cause them to sin and we're in an environment now in in in the country in the state in the country where some of the choices that people are made has the possibility a strong possibility of harming other people here's the families should not neglect their leadership role in choosing to serve the lord choice should not hinder your service to god just think about that your choice should not hinder your service to god your s your choice should not bring shame on the body of christ or your family making the right choice may mean trusting god more than you have ever trusted him in your life and just recognize that many choices have lasting impact god gives us the right to make a choice you can't blame a bad choice on somebody else and there is also bad choice like the prodigal son should cause us to thoroughly examine ourselves particularly our faith and our trust in god i don't know where you stand today on your choices but i hope you have made the choice to obey god all the days of your life and be happy with that if you're not a member of the body of christ we call you to a faith in jesus christ it was the son of god who came to this earth and died for our sins because all have sinned and fallen short of his glory and honor god raised him up from the grave and seated him at his right hand and now he intercedes for us he is our high priest he is our savior he is our lord he is our redeemer he is our elder brother he's our apostle he's the messiah believe on him with all of your heart he died for your sins that you will not have to bear the penalty for your sins he paid the price repent of your sins repent means to change become a disciple of the lord follow the lord all the way home confess your faith in christ jesus and then be baptized into christ baptism is necessary we are baptized for the forgiveness of our sins and when we are baptized the lord forgives us of all sins not make any difference what they are you see on our screen there how you can respond if you in our listening audience you can call you see the number there or you can email and and we bid you to do that if you have that desire this morning if you're not in christ we encourage you to make the choice to follow the lord this morning if you remember the body of christ and you need the prayers of the church maybe for some difficult situation in your life maybe because of sin we ask you to respond likewise once you come once you come once you come today we're going to ask the young lady the young lady who has indicated already that she wants to be baptized just to come down for it ariana white once you come where is ariana there she is and you can come to kevin if you want to if you want to that's her friend walk with the lord he bids you journey with him hide in his love when skies are stormy or dim [Laughter] if glory just walk walk walk with the [Music] lord with the lord [Music] [Music] o [Music] if [Music] all right ariana if you step over here please ariana do you believe with all your heart that jesus is the christ the son of the living god i do amen i do too this confession you made meant death to christ but it's going to mean everlasting life to you congratulations you have made an excellent choice thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] well his love is [Music] glory hallelujah you know i've been running every since i've made my days [Music] [Music] in hallelujah [Music] king jesus will make oh [Applause] [Music] hasn't has been a wonderful day thank you so much brother mccleskey for that powerful powerful sermon and uh even though you might have uh presented it a year and a half ago i didn't remember it so i'm really glad that you reminded us of that today uh glad that you could be with us here today as we said we're going to have a baptism in just a moment but uh we're going to go ahead and dismiss and ask you to stay seated if you are interested in being here for that and if not then you can go ahead and begin to leave if you're in these outer sections you can go out these doors and then we'll be followed by the people in this section um are there others visiting with us today that we haven't acknowledged if you are would you please stand i think there's some folks back there great thank you so much for being with us and uh we also have a prayer request that's come in uh bobby jennings uh asked for prayer his son bobby jennings jr has tested positive for covet 19 so please pray for him and his son and the whole family as they deal with that particular issue so let's uh stand if we will and we'll be dismissed i'll lead a dismissal prayer and then again those of you who want to leave can leave go out of these doors in an orderly manner and those of you who want to stay please stay for that let's pray our god and father in heaven we thank you so much for today we thank you for the time that we've been able to be together we thank you so much for the powerful word that we had delivered to us this morning we thank you for reminding us that you have given us choices and that we can make the right choice the best choice and live in the way that you want us to live give us the courage and strength to do that when we are faced with those difficulties and just help us to do the right thing we thank you so much for uh the young lady who's come forward this morning to be baptized to put you on in baptism we pray for her if we pray for her heart and her soul thank you so much for um for uh uh just touching her and moving her in that way and we pray that you would bless her as she begins this new journey and that you would be with us as uh our congregation as we try to serve her and help her in in her walk with you father we uh pray for bobby jennings bobby jennings jr this morning as they are facing a difficult medical crisis in their family we pray for the young man who's contracted covet and we ask you to help him to be okay we pray for others lord who are suffering from those issues as well and we pray that we would be wise in the way that we interact with one another that we follow medical advice we know that you have blessed us and helped us through uh this very difficult time god we love you we thank you we honor you we praise you and we ask these prayers in jesus name amen god be with you god be with you unto me [Applause] be with you [Music] [Music] until we meet again [Applause] until we again oh [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] amen i guess we can sing one more verse of a song and as brother turner said if you if you need to leave please feel free to exit toward the outer ends of your pew of your owl i once was lost in sin but jesus took me in and then a little life from heaven filled my soul oh it baby and wrote my name above now i'm just a little talk with jesus [Applause] [Music] jesus so authority of our lord and savior jesus christ baptized this precious soul in the name of the father the son and the holy spirit for remission of sins amen

Channel: Schrader Lane Church of Christ

Views: 476

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: u7vvBPgV538

Length: 96min 14sec (5774 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 15 2021