We all have choices
by
Frankie Roberson
My topic today is a bout the choices we all have in our
everyday lives. This topic is such a
broad area that several sermons would be needed to cover it completely. In general, we all have to make choices in
our everyday lives, whether they be good or bad.
As we read in Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the
heaven and the earth”. Also, reading
further, we learn that He created all things of this world, waters, dry land
and vegetation, moon and stars, birds and fish, and then He created animals and
man. God made a choice to do all of
these things. In chapter 2:7 we are told
that God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life; and man became a living soul. As we read verses 15-17 we learn that God
told Adam and Eve that they could eat of every tree in the garden, except for
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
In that, God gave man free will, the right to choose.
We see in Genesis 3:1-7 that Eve was tempted by Satan to eat
of the forbidden tree, she made a choice to eat of the tree and then she gave
the fruit to Adam; he also made a choice to eat of the forbidden tree, so God
placed a curse on Satan and on man and woman and sent them from the garden.
God made some choices on a number of other occasions. Numbers 17:1-8; Deuteronomy 12:5-26;
There is a song that I have heard that states so many life
ideas in just a few lines. Some of the
words are,
“I’ve had
choices, since the day I was born, I heard voices that told me right from wrong; If I listened then I wouldn’t be
here today living and dying with the choices
that I made.”
Those lyrics give us at least three topics to consider:
“I’ve had choices since the day I was born”… As previously
noted, God have us free will, the right to choose. But in the case of Adam and Eve, they were
made full grown and immediately began to make their choices. As we begin life as infants, we don’t have
many choices, like who our parents are, being born
male or female, or where on earth we may be born into this life. As we begin to grow older, we start to have
some choices, like our favorite toy, our favorite color, what foods we prefer
and so on. Then, we get into our preteen and teen
years, and we have a lot of choices; we start to decide the kind of person we
want to become. The kind of friends we
hang around, most importantly, if we want to start following the Word of
God. I know some might say well what if
they never hear the word of God, (we’ll come to that in a minute). But when we are full grown adults, we have
all the choices in the world we want to make – more than we might want at
times- let’s make the right choices.
“I’ve heard voices that told me right from wrong”; We all have had people in our lives who have influenced us,
from parents and siblings, to grandparents, to friends. Sometimes people are influenced by celebrity
figures like athletes in our favorite sport, or musicians, or actors. But we need to be aware that we make the
choice of whether we will allow such individuals to influence our lives. Often, those influences are not good and can
cause us to choose the wrong path in life.
We are taught from the time we are infants that there are some things
that are dangerous for us;
1. Things that can harm us – playing with fire,
playing with electricity, we are taught to be careful when swimming, to stay
away from drugs, not to talk to strangers and so many other things that can be
harmful to us.
2. Hopefully, our parents also taught us that
there are moral choices we must make – things like keeping your promises,
always be kind and helpful to others, and avoid lying, stealing and cheating. In Proverbs
3. Then we have spiritual choices we must make –
like studying to learn about the love of God, about His son Jesus, about grace,
hope, love, forgiveness, heaven, kindness, peace, Satan, Hades, sin torment,
and eternity. Those are the most
important choices we must make.
When it comes down to the voices we will choose to listen
to, it is important that we listen to the wonderful word of God. Psalms 118:8 tells us that it is better to
trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. Let’s listen to God’s word on our decisions
about right and wrong; let us head Christ’s words about how we are to live our
lives. Paul wrote in Galatians
“If I had listened then I wouldn’t be here today, living and
dying with the choices that I made.”
This lyric contains at least two messages: first, the choices we make in
life, whether to do good or bad can affect us in all aspects of life. Some of the good choices we can make like
living for God and obeying His commands make it possible for us to receive the blessings of God’s love, grace
and mercy, through being baptized into Christ and living for God. Doing good can mean a happy, healthy life, a
good marriage, brotherly love for fellow Christians, happy about life after
death because of the promises of God through His Son, Jesus Christ. The bad choices we might make in our life,
like not knowing God and all His wonderful blessings, unhealthy ways, choosing a
lifestyle of sin will eventually cause many to live in fear of death and of
spending eternity with Satan.
The
other meaning I see in this lyric is living and dying in a spiritual sense, for
we can be alive physically, but dead spiritually; 1 Timothy 5:6 “But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.”
The
primary point of this lesson is that no matter what we do in life, we have a
choice. We can all choose right or
wrong, “Let us choose to us judgment: let us know among ourselves what is
good”, Job 34:4. God gave us the freedom
of choice when He made us; it is up to us as individuals to exercise that
freedom – to make the choices. In our
everyday lives we make choices about whether we’ll talk to others about Christ. If we choose to wait too long, or not to talk
about Him at all, we could wait until it’s too late. We have a command from our Lord that we are
to tell others about Him, Matthew 28:19, “Go ye therefore, and teach all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost:” The
Apostle Paul said, “For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of:
for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the
gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9:16). The
choices we make can have life changing affects on those to whom we talk, and on our own lives as well.
The
greatest choice we have in our lives that will affect us both during our time
here on earth and throughout all eternity is to choose to obey the gospel of
Christ, and then to live for Him everyday.
“Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth:
and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood,
and in
The
first and most important choices we must make as adults in life are these;
1.
We must CHOOSE to hear the gospel –
Romans 10:17
2.
We must CHOOSE to believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God – Mark 16:16
3.
We must CHOOSE to repent of our sins –
Luke 13:3
4.
We must CHOOSE to confess the name of
Jesus – Matthew 10:32
5.
We must CHOOSE to be baptized for the
remission of our sins – Acts 2:38; Romans 6:4; 1 Peter 3:21
When
we make the choice to obey His gospel, the Lord then adds us to His church – Acts
2:47.
Colossians
3:1-4, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those
things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the
right hand of God. Set your affection on
things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid
with Christ in God.
When
Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear
with him in glory.”