Choices: Blessing, Cursing, Life, Death
Text: Deut 30:11-20
Introduction:
Moses is instructing Joshua on a ceremony that will be done
once they enter the Promised Land. This ceremony would be carried out on Mt.
Ebal and Mt. Gerizim just inside the border of Canaan. It would signify the
acceptance of the Covenant between God and the People of Israel, a covenant we
label the Palestinian or Land Covenant, because it dealt with the people and
the land God would give them.
We read
about it in Deuteronomy 27:11-13, And Moses commanded the people on the
same day, saying, "These shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the
people, when you have crossed over the Jordan: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar,
Joseph, and Benjamin; and these shall stand on Mount Ebal to curse:
Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.
What Moses
detailed here in Deut 27 does take place under the leadership of Joshua and is
recorded in Joshua 8.
Sometimes I think it would be good for us to have a ceremony
to understand the importance of the choices we make.
Joke: The
Cajun’s son makes his choice. Beadruex called his wife one day to come into the
living room of their house. He told her he had figured out a way to see how his
teenage son was going to turn out.
She asked
him, “How you goin’ do dat?”
He say,
“Look here on de coffey table dat is in this here livin room.”
She looked
and what she see was three things, a Bible, a wallet with 20 dollars sticking
out and a fifth of whiskey.
She look at
her husband and say, “You one crazy fool of a man. How dem thangs show you how
Junior gonna turn out?”
He told
here, “Here come junior now, hide. Hide behin this here curtan and I dun show
you this amazing thang I jus figured out.”
So they hid
and peeked through the curtains as junior walked into the living room and
spotted the things on the coffee table.
First he
picked up the wallet and looked at the twenty dollar bill.
Beadrux
tell his wife. “Oh no. if he take de mony, my boy gonna be a theef”
Junior put
down the money and picked up the whiskey.
“Oh no, If
he take the whisky he gona be a lousy drunk jus like yo daddy!”
Junior put
down the whiskey and picked up the Bible.
“Ifning he
take the Bible he gonna be a preacher for sure.”
Junior put
down the Bible and started to walk off.
Beaudrux’s
wife say, “I dun tole you, you crazy like a crawdad. That boy done take
nuthin.”
Just then
Junior walked back into the living room, picked up the wallet and stuck the
twenty in his pocket. He opened the whiskey took a big swig and put that in his
other pocket. Finally, he reached out took the Bible, tucked it under his arm
and walked out with a smile on his face.
Beaudrux
started to cry and moan and wail like it was his pappa’s funeral.
What his
wife asked, “What it mean since Junior dun took the money, an the whiskey and
the Bible.”
“Oh it be
terrible” cried out Beaudrux. “It be worser dan a theef, worser dan a preacher
and even worser dan a drunk. That boy you gone an raised up, he gonna be a
politician!”
Choices and Contact - Deuteronomy 30:11-14
"For this commandment which I command you today is
not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. It is not in heaven, that
you should say, 'Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we
may hear it and do it?' Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say,
'Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do
it?' But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that
you may do it.
Choices Then
Moses, tells the people, The word is very near you, in your
mouth and in your heart. That you may do it. He is telling them this is not a
hard thing to understand, it is not hard to know what to choose. The right
answer is not hidden but directly in front them. It is so close that he says it
is in their mouth and in their heart that they can and must make the choice.
God beginning in Egypt and continuing throughout the
wilderness has revealed Himself to His people, God has revealed His word and
His will. Now in full view of that undeniable revelation of God, they must
choose.
There is no neutral ground, the people were either on Mt.
Ebal or Mt. Gerizim, they choices this day would be just as obvious and just as
telling.
Choices Today
I don’t know if we are always cognizant of the power of
choices we make everyday. Or sometimes of the consequences of not being willing
to make those choices. One choice can make or break your whole day, like
choosing to mess with your wife before the coffee is made, that can wreck your
whole day. Or the choice of your friends can wreck your life. I knew a young
man who choose bad friends and one day when they asked him to go for a ride, he
said yes. At the end of that ride they robbed a liquor store while he sat in
the car. When they were caught, he went to prison and his life was changed,
terribly changed by that choice he made that day. The lack of making a choice
may be the difference between heaven and hell, one choice made or not made can
have eternal consequences.
The Bible is filled with places where God challenges us to
make a choice.
Joshua 24:15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD,
choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers
served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites,
in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
1 Kings 18:21 - And
Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two
opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the
people answered him not a word.
Proverbs 1: 20-26 Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her
voice in the streets: She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the
openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying, How long, ye
simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their
scorning, and fools hate knowledge? Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour
out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.
By our choices we face God as our Master or as our enemy. By
our choices we find Heaven or Hell as our eternal destination. By our choices
we have forgiveness of our sin or judgment of that same sin. The difference is
but a choice.
There are choices we make after salvation as well. We can
choose to surrender or server self. We can choose to forgive one another or to condemn
one another. We can choose to give to God or to rob God in our tithes and
offerings.
All these choices are right before our eyes. Just as they
were for the Israelites, they are in our mouth to say yes or no. They are in
our hearts to accept or reject.
Illustration
I have an uncle in Yuma, Arizona who was a marine in Vietnam
and later was my boss when I worked in the construction trade building houses.
If he knew how often he comes up as an illustration in my sermons, he probably
wouldn’t have said as much to me as he did, but its too late for that. He had that
Texan way of having the right saying at the right time. When he was ready to
make a choice that would make a change for the better, the would say, “I’m sick
and tired of being sick and tired.” My uncle Larry’s once told me about a Marine
buddy of his who was constantly getting in trouble, he did the least he could
do, often got written up by his superiors and basically wanted to just coast
through life. One day after another incident his Sargent called him into the
barracks for a serious talk. My uncles buddy was a corporal if I remember the
story right, he had potential to go further but he was lazy and not very
responsible. The Sargent told him, Today you have to make a choice as to which
path you want to walk as a Marine. Either you straighten up and make the right
decisions and go on to your next rank or you don’t and I’m going to see you
busted back to private. What is going to be? The marine said, “Sarge, I’m happy
right where I am. I just want to stay right here. His Sargent told him, “Today,
you will decide to take one path or the other, staying where you are is not a
choice.”
I stand before you today to echo that truth when it comes to
God and our responsibility before Him, you don’t have the choice to not choose.
There is no neutral ground, there is no putting off a choice for another day.
Doing so is simply saying no to God and that is a dangerous choice.
Transition: Moses goes on in making this confirmation of the covenant
and its consequences as plain as possible.
Choices and Consequences Deut 30:15-18
See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and
death and evil; In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to
walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his
judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless
thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. But if thine heart turn
away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other
gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely
perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou
passest over Jordan to go to possess it
Moses Gives the Choice and the Consequence
What Moses told the people was really very straightforward,
very simple. If the people of Israel would love God and obey him they would be
blessed by Him and dwell in the promised land in safety and peace, but if they
chose to rebel against him and disobey then they would be cursed by Him and
driven from the land.
When they crossed the Jordon Joshua was to have the tribes
stand on the two mounts, Mt. Ebal represented the curse and Mt. Gerizim the
blessing of God. No tribe was allowed to stand in the valley. This was symbolic
there being no middle ground when it came to obeying God and making a choice. Blessing
or cursing was their choice make but they must make it.
God still Gives the Choice
When God created man, he created him in the image of God.
One aspect of that image is free will, the ability to choose and even to choose
in opposition to the God who created him. One of the reasons I have such a
problem accept the doctrine of foreordination, that God has already determined
who is saved and who is lost, is that the Bible is filled with so many
occurrences of God telling man to choose. It would just such a contradiction
for God to call on man to make a choice, if He had already made that choice for
man. And one thing I am sure that the Bible makes very plain, God does not
contradict Himself.
Look at just a few examples of man’s ability to choose and
then the consequences of that choice.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life.
1 John 5:12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath
not the Son of God hath not life.
Galatians 6:7-8 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for
whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his
flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit
shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
Yet many think there are no consequences to their choices or
worse that they can somehow choose, not to choose. That, of course, is the
worst choice of all. They wait until it is too late to choose. They wait until
the choice is made for them and then they suffer the consequences.
As individuals we choose and reap the consequences but the
principle is the same for nations and governments. Do you remember the story of
the pastor who was called to open the Kansas State Senate in prayer? His prayer
that day was about the wrong choices and it made national news when Pastor Joe
Wright finished.
Prayer of Pastor Joe
In 1996, Pastor Joe Wright was asked by one of his church
members, a state legislator, to open the
new session of the Kansas Senate, everyone was expecting the usual
generalities, but this is what they heard:
"Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask Your
forgiveness and to seek Your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, "Woe to those
who call evil good" but that is exactly what we have done.
We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our
values. We confess that. We have
ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it Pluralism; We have
worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism; We have endorsed
perversion and called it alternative lifestyle; We have exploited the poor and
called it the lottery; We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare; We have
killed our unborn and called it choice; We have shot abortionists and called it
justifiable; We have neglected to discipline our children and called it
building self-esteem; We have abused power and called it politics; We have
coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition; We have polluted the
air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression; We have
ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it
enlightenment.
Search us, Oh, God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us
from every sin and set us free. Guide
and bless these men and women who have been sent to direct us to the center of
Your will, to open ask it in the name of Your Son, the living Saviour, Jesus
Christ. Amen"
The prayer led to "angry walkouts in two state
legislatures, an unprecedented two readings on Paul Harvey's Radio show, more
than 6,500 phone calls to Wright's church and so many boxes of mail that the
church staff didn't' know where to put them all. Additionally, Wright's prayer
went viral, with thousands of emails, which republished and critiqued the
prayer, circulating on the internet.
Transition:
That Pastor understood we as the American people will suffer
the consequences of the choices we make or just as often the choices we refuse
to make. Moses has one more appeal to the Israelites.
Choices and Challenge Deuteronomy 30:19-20
I call heaven
and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and
death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed
may live: That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest
obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and
the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware
unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
The Challenge To Choose
vs. 19. “Choose Life!” Moses knew it was not enough to just
lay the choice before God’s people. They had to be challenged to take action
and make the choice now and every time they would make a choice in the future. His
challenge is powerful and direct, he tells them, “Choose Life!”
In fact Moses draws the reason or making this choice to an exact
pinpoint of reality in vs. 20. “For He is thy Life.”
The choice they were about to make was vastly important,
important to their conquest of Canaan, important to the settling of the land,
important to their keeping the land and important to the generations that would
follow them. Their choice that day counted, it meant something because the
choice they would make was about God and their relationship with Him. “He is
they life!”
There is nothing more important than that.
Our Challenge Today
What mountains are we choosing to stand upon today? With our
choices we will choose the place of cursing or the place of blessing. As it was
then with Moses and the Israelites it is with us today, there is no middle
ground. No place where we can choose not to choose, when it comes to God and
our relationship with Him.
It is not enough just to know the choices. It is not even enough
to understand the consequences. It is only enough when we choose. When we make
the right choice, today and every single time we are confronted with the
challenge of making a decision, we must choose.
So, how then should we choose? If we must act every time
then what guides us to make the right decision, to choose correctly? Here, the
words of Moses are as clear today as they were those thousands of years ago,
“Choose Life! Choose Life! Choose Life!” because “He is thy life” and there
can’t really be any other choice. Choose eternal life. Choose the best life of
your family. Choose life in your friends and choose life when forgiving your
enemies. Choose life in all things and you will find the blessings of God as
the consequence for that choice.
Illustration:
In the Book of Revelation, when Jesus wrote his letters to
the Seven Churches of Asia, by the hand of John, one phrase is sent to every
single church. We read it Rev 2 verses 7, 11,17, and 29 then in chapter 3:
verses 6, 13 and 22. What is this one phrase that it is so important that every
single church no matter its circumstance was to hear and respond to.
Revelation 3:13 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the
Spirit says to the churches." That is a challenge to every person to make
the right choice. It is a challenge to hear the words of Jesus Christ as they
are given to us by the Holy Spirit working through the Bible, working through the
sermon, working through our hearts. If you are hearing this then the Holy
Spirit is speaking to you. Listen and then make the right choice.
In the final appeal to the Church of Laodicea, Jesus says in
Revelation 3:20-22 “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the
door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To
him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also
overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an
ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”
Just as Moses stood before the nation of Israel and told
them to Choose Life, Jesus stands at the door of the church and knocks, He
knocks at our will, he knocks at our heart, he knocks and the knock is a
challenge to make the right choice. Choose life, choose to open the door and
let Jesus give us life.
Conclusion
What choice will you make today?
You need to quit stalling, quit waiting and choose life in
Jesus Christ You need to answer the challenge, make the choice and put your
faith in Christ this morning, right now, right here.
Perhaps there are other choices that involve the path God
would have you walk and you’re stalled at the crossroad. It’s time to choose
life, let Jesus Christ take your hand
and lead where He wants you to go.
Whoever you are and whatever you are struggling with this
morning I stand before you and without doubt tell you, that you will never go
wrong if you choose life and choose to follow Jesus as Savior and as Lord.
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