Choose Life

Introduction

Life is filled with choices. Hundreds of decisions take place every day. We choose the time to get up and the time to go to bed and in between those two decisions comes hundreds of others. Most of our decisions are not significant at the moment but can lead to long term consequences. The choice of what food to eat today may not be a big deal but choosing to eat poorly over time has its affect on the body.

Most of the decisions we make each day are not major or significant. They are day-to-day choices that we either do by habit or without much thought. But there are those decisions that are monumental. These are decisions that affect one’s life. These are decisions that will ultimately determine your journey for life — what to do with your life, the person you marry or don’t, moves made to further a career or education — these decisions are made many times with great care but none of us know what a decision made will affect the long-term path of life.

Then there are those decisions that occur that may seem significant at the time but with the passage of time becomes even greater than one could have imagined. ILL. Decisions — Affects Others.

In our text today, Moses calls on the people to make a significant choice as a nation. Their future will be based on the choice they make. This text reminds us that we, too, must make one monumental choice in life that affects our eternal future. Most of us have made that choice and now we live in faith waiting for the fulfillment of that choice. Let’s be reminded today of the significance of that choice and that we live by faith.

The Offer

Most of us like having options. We like being able to choose what we believe is best for us. We like the table full of desserts to choose the one or two that we really want. We like having plenty of choices for television programs to watch. We like having lots of colors to choose from for clothing. But we are also intimidated by having too many choices. We go to a restaurant and the extensive menu makes us pause because there are too many things to choose from. There is a fair amount of psychology related to making choices. In most cases people are very concerned about making the wrong choice and so they are paralyzed in making a choice at all. The more concerned people are with making the “perfect” choice the more paralyzed they are.

Watch a child in an ice cream shop that has 31 flavors. They press their nose against the glass trying to look at all the flavors before they can choose just one scoop. They aren’t alone. In such a place I eliminate all flavors without chocolate. At least that narrows the selection. Researchers suggest that the real problem in so many choices and the paralysis that comes with making the wrong choice is a person is actually uninformed. In other words, the more information a person has the more likely that person is to make a choice with less difficulty. For instance, researchers followed those who were trying to make decisions about retirement accounts. Companies that offered their employees more choices for retirement accounts had less participation than companies that offered fewer choices. Why? Researchers speculate that too many choices resulted in people feeling like they couldn’t know for sure which choice was best and thus opted not to participate at all rather than making the wrong choice and losing money.

There are lots of other similar studies but the point is that making the right choice is very important to most of us. But there is another element involved with this idea of choice and it has to do with gratification. We anticipate that once a choice is made that we will receive some benefit or reward from that choice. We do not anticipate that a choice will result in more problems. There is the idea that if we make a choice then good things ought to result from the choice. When negative consequences come then we assume that the choice must have been a bad one and filled with regret we wish we had done something else. So researchers have come to some conclusions — first, learn to live with good enough rather than perfection and second, fewer choices is better than an abundance of choice. Interesting.

In our text, Moses gives Israel a choice. There are two options. They can choose to follow God which will result in life and prosperity or they can choose to be disobedient and follow other gods which will result in death and destruction. The choice seems to be clear and obvious. Who wouldn’t want life and prosperity over death and destruction. But if the choice is so obvious why is there a choice at all? Why would the people even need to hear the choices? Had they not already experienced God’s grace sufficiently to make following God the obvious choice? Had they not already seen God’s power adequately so that following him seems obvious?

Choosing Is Not Easy

Why is choosing so difficult? Specifically, why is choosing to follow God so difficult? I am speaking to people who follow God and yet we find the challenge of following him often difficult. It isn’t that there are too many choices. There are only two. So what is the issue? Is it that we don’t expect anything negative consequence as a result of the choice made? Sometimes people will say “I gave God a try and it didn’t work out like I thought it ought to.” That’s the idea. Choose God and life and prosperity are supposed to be the result. Minor problems may come but nothing that really challenges our faith. A cold; maybe a virus; but no cancer. Minor setback economically but always another job and moving forward. Small spouse issues but no real challenges.

Happiness and prosperity is to be ours.

Let’s ask Job if he thinks following God brings happiness and prosperity.

Let’s ask Abraham if he ever could have envisioned a 25 year wait for the child of promise.

Let’s ask Naomi if she could have ever envisioned loss of job requiring moving to a new nation only to have her husband and sons die so that she is absolutely alone in this world. She is so alone that she changes her name to Mara because she is so bitter about God’s failure in this world.

Let’s ask Paul as he approaches the end of his life and he pleads with Timothy to get to him before winter because he feels absolutely alone and abandoned.

Let’s ask Jesus faced with his closest friends betraying him as he dies on a cross if he thinks happiness and prosperity are the result of following God.

No wonder many choose to not follow God. If you want happiness and prosperity there are ways to get that without God. It doesn’t feel like dying when you are choosing to do things that please you while ignoring God’s commands and instructions. It doesn’t feel like destruction when we build and save and prepare for the future comfort of this life without regard to what God wants. If a person’s view is that God is supposed to keep us from getting hurt, damaged, or upset then God fails. Am I saying that God doesn’t want us to be happy? Yes and no. Not happy in the way the world means it but happy in the way God wants it.

Turn to John 10. Jesus is explaining who he is. He is a good shepherd. There are those who only want to take advantage of others. There are those who want to use others for their gain. But Jesus doesn’t want to take advantage of us. He wants instead to give us real life. To ignore God means that you have to constantly be on the lookout for those who want to use you, harm you, and take advantage of you. But to follow and obey God means that he wants to relieve you of this world’s concerns. To follow God means that we know that God wants what is best for us. He shows how much he loves us by giving of himself for us. The good shepherd lays down his life for us. He shows us what it means to be happy in God’s way. When we want what God wants then we will have something that this world cannot give us — we are free from exerting all the energy and effort to be happy. Instead we are free to love and serve and help others and provide comfort. We find real happiness when we give our hearts to God rather than holding on to the false belief that we can make this broken, fallen, and sinful world work right.

Ill. Decision: “The Robe” by Lloyd C. Douglas. So the choice that Moses gave Israel so long ago is the same choice that we have. Look at verse 20. What does it mean to follow God? Love him. Listen to his voice. Hold fast to him. Why? For the Lord is your life. Real living is found in God. We believe that. Don’t let this world persuade you differently. Invitation.

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