Learn To Live With Second Choices

Introduction

Good evening, everyone. Good evening. My Bible is open to 16th chapter of Acts. And I sure would like you to find a Bible in turn right there as well. Load up an electronic device and get that flying. Get a paper Bible, but whatever it takes, let’s look in the Word of God and see what the Lord has to say. What a joy to be with you tonight and to sing praises to God, to join with one another in the very most important thing humans can do. To glorify, to honor, to worship. And there is an amazing centeredness that comes with that, isn’t there? It is just a joy. Just a joy to be with you. Let’s read in the text. I’m reading in Acts 16, please.

In verse 7. Let’s just start in verse 6. How about that? Can I back up a whole verse? Acts 16, 6. Here Luke tells us they went through the region of Frisia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they’d come up to Messiah, they attempted to go to Bethynia. But the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So passing by Messiah, they went down to Troas. What we’re talking about this week is what it means to be involved in everyday discipleship. And what we want to focus on this evening is the idea of living with second choices. Now, I don’t think Acts 16, 7 and 8 is anybody 6, 7, and 8 is anybody’s favorite verse.

I’ve never been to someone’s house. It was crocheted on a pillow. This is probably not something that a lot of people have memorized with the tip of their tongue, but it’s a powerful verse when we start thinking about what we want to do and how God sometimes changes those plans that we cannot do that. We have to take, we have to take second. Think there’s only a choice. Maybe to kind of update that idea and make that a little more contemporary. Let me introduce you to this young man, this fellow right here. This is this is Andrew. Andrew grew up in London, and as a result, he has a very deep love of European football, what we would call soccer. In fact, in several interviews, Andrew has told folks that what he would really do if he could do anything is he’d play professional soccer.

English Premier League. That’s what he really wishes he could do. Of course, Andrew is 6’4 in 240 pounds. He’s not really suited for playing English soccer. What he’s really suited for is quarterbacking the Indianapolis Colts. Andrew Lucky is one of the premier quarterbacks in the NFL. He has done extraordinarily well in his professional football career, but it’s a little odd, isn’t it? To think of playing in the NFL as a second choice. Oh, I really wish I was, but instead, this is what I’m doing. But everybody has to take second at some point in time. That can be just as simple as when we’re clicking on a website and we’re ordering something, and it says, if we don’t have this sweater in red, what other choice do you want?

And you say blue, and then a couple of days go by, and the FedEx man stops in and he has this wonderful box, and you’re ready to unwrap your red sweater, and you open it, and it is -huh. It’s blue. We had to take a second choice. We have to learn to live with those choices. That is a huge and significant part of everyday discipleship, because sometimes those second choices are not as trivial as whether the sweater we ordered is red or blue. Sometimes that is all about choosing to have a wonderful, fulfilling marriage, and instead we’re divorced. Sometimes that’s about wanting to run a successful business. And instead we find ourselves standing at an auction watching the pieces of it being sold at a loss because the business failed.

Sometimes living with second choices means we dream the dream of beautiful, healthy children, and instead we have children who have special needs and the challenges that go with that. Or we had hoped that our children would grow up to marry fine Christians, and we would be united as a family in Jesus Christ. But instead, our children married a non-Christian spouse. And now there is tension and trouble and heartbreak and division and strife. Life is often filled with very difficult second choices. What are you doing then? What are you doing then? Do you see now how our text connects? What happened here is that Paul wanted to go to Mysia, verse 7. Wanted to go to Bithynia, but God said no. And Paul is not the only one who got to know.

Joseph wanted to grow up as the son of a rich farmer. He got to know slavery in Egypt. Jacob wanted Rachel. He got Leah. Peter probably would have preferred to preach to Jews. He ended up preaching to Gentiles. Life is full of second choices for all of us. What do you do when you don’t get what you want? Some die outside the gates of Bithynia, hemorrhaging inside with bitterness and disappointment. They are wounded in their spirit and they are unable to go on. If we’re going to talk about what it means to serve the Lord every day, we need to talk about what it means to live with second choices to accept what we would never have ordered if we’d gotten what we wanted. And I want you to know that I am using the term second choice here very accommodatively.

Some of the things that we are talking about, some of the things that are wounding your heart are not things that you chose at all. It wasn’t a second choice, and yet it has been chosen for you, pressed upon you. Still, we must go on. We must learn what it is to serve the Lord even with this second option. For too many, that option results in sin. We get bitter against God. We sin to try to get what we want, our first choice. We get discouraged in life and give way to a downtrodden and defeated attitude. We cannot let that happen. Since second choices are our reality for all of us, let’s learn what the Bible tells us to do. When life didn’t come up roses, what we’ve got is a big bouquet of dandelions.

1. Act on What I Can Control

Let me suggest several ideas from Scripture this evening that will help us live with second choices. That begins with just a realization that I need to act on what I can control. There’s an awful lot that’s way beyond our control. Because I hail from Dallas. As soon as I get outside the fair inns of our city, someone’s going to ask me about being a Dallas Cowboy fan, and yes, I am. I bleed silver and blue, and I am utterly fed up with our meddling owner who has wrecked the greatest team in sports. And I want you to know what I can do about that. Nada. But zero. Jerry Jones does not ask me, does not call me, does not consult with me. That is out of my control.

And there’s a lot of things like that. The problems in the Mid East, I’m a little weary with that too. How about you? What would it be like if the news ever led with a story besides people killing and blowing each other up in the Middle East? We wouldn’t even know what to do with that. I’m not in charge of that. Oh, President Obama did not ask me to come to the White House and give him some advice about how to fix that whole situation. There’s a lot of things I can’t control. The weather, Calvin Coolidge said, everybody complains about it. Nobody does anything about it. Because we can’t do anything about it. Too often, however, if we get our second choice, we fight against it.

We’re not gonna accept it. We act as if we can fix this, solve this, change anything. We’re gonna get what we want no matter what. What we need to do is learn from Joseph. Joseph was a master of this. Can you find Genesis 39? We talked about Joseph this morning from the 39th chapter of Genesis, and I need to visit that text again because this tells us about a fellow who was in a bad situation. I’m certain he was unhappy to be a slave, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it. So what did Joseph do? The text tells us in Genesis 39 and verse 1. Joseph was brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard in Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites.

Who brought him down there? Verse 2. Verse 2 said, The Lord’s with Joseph. He became a successful man. And he was in the house of his Egyptian master. His master saw the Lord was with him. And the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hand. Don’t get lost here. Don’t think for a moment, young people, that everything just came up roses for Joseph because, well, just because God was pouring the blessings upon him. Over and over, what we see is that Joseph worked hard, didn’t complain, did the best he could where he was. As a result, God did bless that spirit and bless that attitude. And by the way, don’t forget that middle section of Genesis 39 we worked this morning. He refused to send to improve his position.

I need to be like Joseph. I need to work on what I can control. I need to accept what is outside my ability to control. Can I note two areas that we have no control? You cannot control the past. It’s all done. It’s gone. No more. Can’t do anything about it. That’s what Paul says in Philippians 3. Let’s get that. Load Philippians 3 for me. Paul says there in Philippians 3, particularly as he thinks about a painful past. In Philippians 3, this is verse 12. Not that I have obtained this or am already perfect. But I am pressing on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do, I forget what lies behind.

I strain forward to what lies ahead, and I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. You can’t do anything about the past. Don’t let that control you or define you. And then I need to say, secondly, you can’t do anything about the future. The future is in the hands of the Lord. James chapter 4 reminds us that we are foolish when we envision that we can exert control into tomorrow. No, what we need to do is do in the now. When it’s beyond my control, I need to humble myself and accept that. So here’s somebody I’m trying to teach the gospel, and I’ve talked to them about the Bible, and I’ve talked to them about the Bible, and I’ve invited them to church, and I’ve talked to them more about the Bible, and they’re disinterested, and they don’t want to talk, and they don’t want to say anything, and they’re not interested in studying with me.

What do I need to do? Need to accept that. And move on. Here I am in a situation. I’m divorced. Didn’t want to be divorced. Didn’t want that to happen to me. It has been done to me. Can’t control it. Can’t change it, can’t stop it. What am I going to have to do? Accept that and move on. Look at Romans 12. I love this verse. Romans chapter 12 and verse 18. In Romans 12 and verse 18, there the apostle reminds us what we need to do, if possible, so much as it depends upon you, Romans 12, 18. What do you do? Live peaceably with all. Accept how things are. Do the best where you can as you can. For some of you right now, this is your stop.

You did not want to be widowed, but you are. You didn’t want to be unemployed. You didn’t want to have a chronic illness. However, we cannot let what we cannot control our lives. Let’s get on with what we can do. Let’s take on what we have some control over. The things that happened to us, the things that others did to us, the things that were unfair and unjust and unexpected, they can become a crutch that we begin to use as an excuse for why we are sitting down and doing nothing. If we’re not careful, it can debilitate us and cripple us. What does Solomon say? There are some things that are crooked and they can’t be made straight. I need to accept that. If I’m going to live with second choices.

2. Don't Allow My First Choice to Become an Idol

Which brings me to this second observation, and that is I need to be careful. I need to be careful that I don’t allow my first choice to become an idol that I obsess about. You ever been in the store when a mama says no to a child who wanted a toy or some candy. Wouldn’t you love that at Walmart? They put you in these narrow stalls and stack you in there with an extraordinarily unhappy four-year old who’s being told now that he cannot have 18 pounds of sugar. And what does that child do? That’s it. He exercises the nuclear option. He throws a temper tantrum. What’s that child saying? No, I accepting my second choice. I’m going to have my first choice, or I’m going to call down fire and brimstone upon you right now.

Love being trapped within two and a half feet of that activity. I’ll tell you this parenting tip. My parents never gave me what I was asking for when I threw a temper tantrum. They gave me what I needed. And in our family, every child threw one and only one fit. I thought that was the nuclear option. Have you ever seen a nuclear spanking? Yes, my parents know all about those. Well, God doesn’t spank his children. And maybe that’s the reason why sometimes God’s children throw a fit. I can show you that in the Bible. Look in Genesis 16, please. In Genesis chapter 16, thramps, nothing was more important in Old Testament times than that a woman would bear children. And what you’ve got an illustration of in the 16th chapter of Genesis is Sarah being so focused on having children that is so important to her that she coerces her husband into doing something that is wrong.

Something that is bad for them and bad for their marriage. I’m reading Genesis 16 1. Sarai, Abraham’s wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hager. And Sarai said to Abraham, Behold, now the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. She didn’t know that. Go into my servant. It may be that I shall obtain children by her. Abram listened to the voice of Sarah. Look what happened here. Not like in what I got. Won’t accept my second choice. Going to get my first choice. She misinterprets the activity of God and then decides we’ll do something wrong to get what we want. So after Abram had lived 10 years of our story in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abraham’s wife, took Hager the Egyptian.

Her servant gave her to Abraham, her husband’s wife. As a wife, he went into Hagar and she conceived. When she saw, she’d conceive. She looked with contempt on her mistress. The whole situation goes south as a result of this. It is a violation of the marriage covenant. It does their marriage no good at all. Please don’t say. Oh, God had promised. Yes. God had promised Abraham and Sarah a child that they would have. Not that they would need a third party in this relationship to have this child. This is a woman who is determined to have what she wants. She wants it. She wants it now. And she’ll do anything to get it. I need to fit this idea in here. Because when I start talking about, we’re going to act on what we control.

What some people are going to say, I’ll tell you what, I can control my first choice. That’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to get what I want. But if what we want takes doing something that is wrong and sinful, if doing that is questionable, if going for our first choice compromises our influence, hurts our spirituality, damages our family. Then what we are doing is we’re obsessing. And we’re recording that, the place in our lives that only God should have. That’s called what? That’s called idolatry, isn’t it? Grab Colossians 3 5. In Colossians 3 and verse 5, watch what Paul says here. Sometimes we think we’re so sophisticated. Oh, we’re way past idolatry. You’re so sure about that? Try Colossians 3 5. Paul says there, in Colossians 3 and verse 5, put to death, therefore what is earthly in you.

Colossians 3 5, sexual immorality and impurity and passion and evil desire and covetousness. Covetousness, which is idolatry. What’s covetousness? Covetousness is wanting something so bad, you’ll do anything to get it. There it is. Sometimes we’ll say, I do anything. Watch it, watch it. Sometimes that’s just a figure of speech. But sometimes we’re telling more truth than we know. We have set this in the center of our hearts. We want it so much it does not matter. We will stretch our hand and take it. When we do so, we’ve sinned against God as surely as Saraiah. Instead, can you find Acts 15? Instead, what we need to do is be like John Mark. If you’re going to talk about second choices, somewhere in here, John Mark’s coming to this discussion, isn’t he?

Because at the end of the 15th chapter of Acts, there we read, after the Jerusalem conference, I’m reading Acts 15 36, that here, after some time, Paul said to Barnabas, Acts 15 36, let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaim the word of the Lord and see how they are. Now, Barnabas wanted to take with him John called Mark. Yeah. Gonna go with Paul and Barnabas. How great is that. And Paul said, verse 38. Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. What’s that like when you show up all eager to go? I’m packed. I’m ready. Woohoo! Gonna go preach the gospel with you, Paul.

Paul says, You’re not going with me.

That’s rough. When your first choice is to be part of Paul’s missionary team. And instead you find that Paul draws a line in the sand. You are the center of a disagreement, verse 39, that is so sharp that it results in Barnabas taking Mark with him and sailing to Cyprus. But what’s impressive about that is that John Mark decided, I’m going to let God use my second choice. Instead of getting mad at God, mad at Paul, quitting all this old Christianity thing. What a scam. If you’re going to act like that, I’m out of here. What John Mark says is, I’ll serve God wherever I have opportunity to do so. And I think I know where he learned that. I think he did learn it. From that guy who looked at him and said, -not you.

3. Use Where We Are to Glorify the Lord

Because that’s always Paul’s attitude. At the end of his life in Philippians, please, in Philippians chapter 1. You talk about a difficult situation. Paul, the one who wants to be striding across the Roman Empire, planting churches and preaching the gospel, bringing Gentiles by the droves into the kingdom of God. As I open Philippians 1, Paul finds himself in prison. In prison. And you may think that Paul’s first and second choice dilemma here is whether he’s going to die and go and be with the Lord, or whether or not he’s just going to continue here. And Paul says some things about that. Read with me, verse 19. I know, Philippians 1 19, that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance.

As it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not at all be ashamed, but that with full courage, now as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death, for me to live as Christ and to die as gain. I am to live in the flesh. That means fruitful labor for me. That which I shall choose, I cannot tell, for I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better, but to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your account. Well, someone says, There it is, Mark. Those are his choices. Do I die and go to heaven? Do I stay here and work with the brethren?

Those are the choices. I’m telling you, those are the choices. Paul is in the middle of a massive second choice. He’s in prison. If you’d asked Paul, what would you drrother do? He’d have told you his brothers were. Get out of here. Instead, he has a prison sentence. And the man sharpening the axe down the hall is sharpening it for Paul. There’s no blue ribbon here at all. None of this is a first choice. None of this is what Paul wants. Instead, Paul says, I’m stuck here. But look what he says he’s going to do here. I’m going to glorify Christ, verse 20. Now as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. Too many people never think along these lines.

When things are going well, they just praise themselves and pat themselves on the back. Look at me. Look at this. I’ve got the world in a bottle with a stopper in my hand. Aren’t I somebody? When things go to pieces, they’re so busy trying to put it all back together, they still aren’t thinking about God. But when it’s good, they don’t think about the Lord. When it’s bad, they don’t think about the Lord. And I want you to know that’s not what Christians do. You want to talk about everyday Christianity? Christianity is a relationship. It’s not what we do three times a week in this building. Christianity is a relationship with Jesus Christ. Sometimes that’s just religious gargain. Do you have a relationship with Jesus? We don’t have any idea what that means.

What’s it mean to be in a relationship? What it means to be in a relationship is that you care for someone, that you are interested in them. You are interested in what they are interested in. You are interested in pleasing them. You are interested in bringing joy to their life. That’s what a relationship is all about. Well, see, we can work that with Jesus Christ. What’s it mean to be in a relationship with Jesus Christ? You care about Jesus Christ. You care about what Jesus Christ cares about. You are interested in him because he is interested in you. You want to bring honor and glory to him. You want to do what pleases him. You are thinking about him. Here’s Paul. He’s in a real relationship with Jesus.

He’s in prison. What is Paul thinking about? Here’s this situation. It’s terrible. It’s yucky. The food isn’t any good. I don’t want to be here. I’m going to glorify Christ. What does Christ want me to do in this situation? I’m saying to you this evening, the essence of everyday Christianity is that every day we get up and think about Jesus. What will honor him? What will put him first? What will glorify him? How can I serve him? I care about Jesus. Jesus cares about me. That’s what we’re doing here. And never is that more true than when we have a second choice situation. The truth of the matter is, sometimes God knows what’s best and he knows what we need, and he carefully directs in his good providence so that we don’t get our first choice.

Because what we need is something else. And sometimes, yes. God will bless us with what we asked for, what we thought we needed, what we believed we needed. That does happen, but again, lots of times it’s a second choice that directs our vision upward. That reminds us of God in our lives and his place, and that we can serve him better where he puts us. Remember our text? What about Bithynia? I’m really glad Paul didn’t go to Bithynia. He went to Philippi, where many eager hearts heard the gospel. What second choice are you stuck with? When that happens, will you use that second choice to bring honor and glory to the Lord? What is remarkable and encouraging is how God can use second choice people. Someone who’s been diagnosed with cancer.

Five years ago. My wife and I got that phone call. There are some things on this mammogram that we need to look at and talk with you about. Five years ago, we got that pink ribbon. By the grace of God, my wife is doing wonderfully well. I want you to worry about Dina. But I am amazed at how Dina can serve and minister to a woman who has received that devastating news. The fear, the fright that goes with that. Because she hasn’t been there. No one ever would choose cancer. That’s not a second choice. That’s like an 800 zillioth choice. But my wife, in an amazing way, glorifies God with that second choice. A Christian woman whose husband is not a child of God. She can reach out to another Christian who’s working with a non Christian spouse and say things and have compassion and care.

That’s someone else who’s always known the joy of worshiping God with their mate. We don’t get it. We don’t understand, do we? Last year I was in Louisville, Kentucky in a gospel meeting. I preached the whole week on Luke 15, the parable of the prodigal son was amazing. I’d always wanted to do that. I believe that parable is rich and full. Could have gone two weeks. One of the things we talked a lot about is prodigal sons. Adult children who leave the Lord. What to do about that, what to say about that, and what we ended up with was a house full of people who were grieving the spiritual loss of their children. And one of the things that we learned is to look around and see who’s hurting in this way and comfort each other and help each other.

4. Lean Upon the Lord in Our Weakness

And someone whose son or daughter has just left to go to that far country. Who needs to be there for them? Who needs to go and see them and pray with them and embrace them and say, I know how much this hurts. These are not first choice situations. But if we will accept what we cannot control, if we’ll quit trying to sin our way into better circumstances, we can use where we are to glorify the Lord. That’s everyday discipleship. And perhaps most importantly of all, what that does is help us then to lean upon the Lord in our weakness. In some ways, I do feel sorry for people who always get what they want. They get, they get smug and all happy and decide that it’s because of them that life is just always so perfect.

Or when suddenly they are confronted with a second choice, they’re absolutely knocked for a loop. Even more. When you don’t get everything delivered in a nice, neat package, you may never learn to cope with the reality of a difficult situation. You never learn to glorify God where you are, and most importantly, you don’t learn to lean upon the Lord and not yourself. Perhaps in many ways, this is the ultimate of what we are talking about. Because in many ways, what our first choice amounts to is what? We want to be independent. We don’t want to lean upon the Lord. We want to stand on our own two feet. We want to be ourselves, our own person. From the beginning in the garden, we have wanted what?

To push God out of our lives and run things our own way. Second choices shatter that. Make us quit pretending that we are so strong and powerful and able on our own. And so we come to develop a relationship with the Lord. We come to depend upon Him. And of course, the passage that I want here is in 2 Corinthians 12, where Paul talks about that second choice. He talks here about the famed thorn in the flesh. We don’t know what that was. And too often we spend so much time speculating about that we never get around to talking about what Paul said about it. Can we quit talking long enough to listen to Paul? Here’s why Paul told us about that, verse 7, to keep me from becoming conceited.

Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given to me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times. I pleaded with the Lord about this that it should leave me. But he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will go to all the more gladly in my weakness, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, calamities. Listen to him. For when I am weak, then I am strong. The Mark Roberts International East Texas version says, for when I get my second choice, then I am made to depend upon God.

That is so hard for us. To begin with, it’s just hard for us to admit it. I don’t know about ladies. I suspect it is difficult for women as well, but I know us men, we don’t ever want to say, I can’t. We don’t ever want to depend on anybody else. We are very accomplished. It’s saying, No, thanks, I got it. Got it. Nope. I can handle it, I’ll take care of it. No worries. We are really good at that. And then, of course, if you depend upon the Lord, the scary part about that is, well, you just have to accept God’s will in the matter. It’s really easy to say, let go and let God, and God is in control. But sometimes God’s will and our will aren’t the same.

And the scary part of letting go and letting God is that God, gasp, might not use his mighty power to do my will. Can you imagine? That instead God might expect that I would do his will. I hate it when someone says prayer doesn’t work. Because it’s a sense that they believe prayer is this business of jotting down everything you want, and you hand your list to the magic genie in the sky, and God gets busy filling your order. That’s not a relationship. That’s not it. We have failed to perceive the vastness of our needs. We have failed to see the gap in our will and his will. And all too often we have tried to make God into our personal idol, the great butler in the sky, who will do what we want, who will fetch and carry for us.

And when we get our second choice, we learn better. We learn to do the will of the Lord. We learn to depend upon Him for strength. Nobody’s a fan of second choices. Nobody says, Well, I just hope this is happening. No. When I first began to preach the gospel, I was in a two-preacher arrangement in an intern program in Odessa, Texas. And it came time for me to exit that program. And I went and tried out with a small church, lovely little church. Things went very well. I thought I preached pretty good. On the way home, Dean and I talked about did we want to move there? Brethren going to call us. What are we going to ask for in a salary way? What will it take to live in this community?

We’re working all those details out. And they did. They called me. They called me on Tuesday evening, and they said the brethren had met. They were going to keep looking. They didn’t want me. They didn’t want me. So here I was trying to preach the gospel and set the world on fire. It was time to leave where I was at, and I had no place to go. I thought I had that under control. I thought I had figured that out. I thought I went down there and did a great job and had it all smooth, going to transition from this to that church. It’s all going to go great. I now had no place to go. And I learned. I learned it is not by my will.

It is not by what I want that God is enslaved to my desires. I learned to wait upon the Lord as we sang so well. I learned that God often has much better things planned for us than we could have ever imagined. But mostly I learned to pray and to seek God. And I realized finally that it was very helpful to get knocked flat down and realize that I couldn’t do and couldn’t orchestrate and couldn’t make it happen. I needed to lean upon God. Isn’t that what we all want? To develop a closer relationship with Him. Search your life. And you’ll find that in your second choices, those are the times that you are brought the closest to the Lord. Second choices make us lean upon Him.

Conclusion

Perhaps there’s nothing else in our lives. That is where everyday discipleship needs to go. So I suppose in many ways that Mr. Luck is doing pretty well with his second choice. Not too bad when second choice means you’re making millions of dollars in the NFL as a quarterback. Most of us are going to find that our second choices are less exciting and less desirable. But sometimes our second choices are what we’ll have to take. It is the word of God that equips us to say to the Lord, I will still serve you. It is the scriptures that equip us to deal with disappointment and continue on. It is the scripture that helps us see that in second choices, our character is honed and refined so that we are closer to God, and that is what we want.

Because those second choices not only bring us closer to God here, they bring us closer to our home with God in eternity. It is these principles that’ll get you there. Would you pray with me, please? Almighty God and Father in heaven. We come before you, Father, acknowledging that sometimes we are prideful and arrogant. We are demanding. We expect to receive. So often you have blessed us so richly and so abundantly that sometimes, Father, when we don’t get what we want, we whine and throw a tantrum. Forgive us, Father. Help us to see second choices as an opportunity to draw closer to you. Help us to depend upon you. Help us to see how much we need you. Help us, Father, in our everyday life, as we live with the circumstances that we are in, to accept them and to honor and glorify you through them.

For it is you that we want. In Christ we pray. And amen. Let’s get ready to sing this invitation song. An opportunity, perhaps, for someone to say, I need to serve the Lord in a better way. Maybe I should back up a little bit. Maybe there’s somebody here tonight who just needs to start. Please don’t be deceived. You walk this island and are baptized into Jesus Christ. It does not mean, you saw that tonight, that life is suddenly all going to go your way. That’s not what this is about. It does mean that you can start with the Lord and you can start building that relationship with your creator. Learn to depend upon Him. Learn His place in your life. If at one time you started that journey, but somehow you’ve lost your way.

It is an opportunity now to return to Him. Test your brothers and sisters in Christ for forgiveness and for help and for strength. Maybe life now is bent and twisted. You’ll have to do the best you can where you are. But with God’s help and with God’s people’s help, you can serve the Lord. That’s what we’re about. Can we help you know and serve God? Make your way down front while we stand, while we say God.