Life Options (Deuteronomy 30:15,16)

Introduction

It’s a privilege to speak to so many on this Lord’s Day and to be able to present God’s message. It is also a wonderful privilege and blessing to have so many young people in our audience. And there are so many choices that you will, if the Lord allows this earth to stand and gives you time, so many choices that you will be making in your life. And those of us who are older, yeah, we’ve got some more choices to make too. So this topic this morning is quite relevant to everyone. I want to talk about your options. You’ve got a lot of options. There are options that relate to employment. Your job. You start to work for a company and you think this is going to be great.

I’m going to work for them for 30 years or 40 years, and I’m going to have a great pension. I’m going to retire. And how often does that not work out like we think it’s going to? We take a job in Houston. We end up in San Antonio. We come back to Houston. I mean, you know, who knows where this employment journey is going to go. And then you buy homes. You think, oh, this is going to be a nice home. You make this careful inquiry and search, and you find just the right home, and then you realize who your neighbors are. I gotta tell you, I’ve gotten really lucky. You know, you really should investigate your neighbors, even if the house is perfect. You should do an investigation of your neighbors.

You can’t do it, you don’t have time for all of that. You need to find out what makes these people tick because it could be a nightmare. We had a guy around the corner from us. I didn’t witness this, but I saw the petition that was going around in the neighborhood about this guy. He was out in the middle of the night digging up his yard, hosing out his house. He has the up the front door open. He’s hosing it out. I mean, finally he gets, I guess, evicted from the property. But it was a mess, I’m told. You don’t get to pick your neighbors. Or you do pick your neighbors. You just don’t know what you’re getting. And then there’s the choice or option of a spouse.

And we try to make a careful choice about that. And we encourage our young people, marry a Christian, but that’s not even a guarantee because sometimes people change or they’re not as committed as they appear to be, and for a lot of reasons, it doesn’t pan out like you think. And you might just discover you’ve married a narcissist. Or somebody else with extreme emotional problems. And so you didn’t anticipate all of that. And who knows where this is going to go? Where’s this marriage going to be in seven years? I’ve been married 29 years. Nearly. Well, you’ve got to get the number right. Almost 29. And over nearly three decades of marriage, I could never have anticipated everything that Sherry and I would go through together in our lives.

No one can anticipate all of that stuff. And then if there’s financial planning, you think I’m going to be smart about this. I got to tell you, and I impressed Shelley with this. My daughter last Sunday, she didn’t know this. I started investing for my retirement in my mid 20s. She goes, Dad, you were ahead of the curve doing that in your mid 20s. But how did that pan out? I was with the wrong company. It was a disaster. I hardly gained anything over the first ten years of investing. And so, you know, you think you’re doing the right thing, and it doesn’t, I’m going to have a nest egg of so much that I can retire on, but no, you’re stuck with me for the next 30 years.

Not as much laughter as I thought. So, what’s the point of all those options? There is no way of seeing the complete end of those choices. It’s unpredictable. It’s beyond our view. And you know, that really bothered Solomon a lot. In Ecclesiastes chapter 9, I think it’s somewhat the theme of that entire chapter. When he says anything awaits them. I mean, whether you’re righteous or unrighteous, you know, anything can happen. And not only that, everyone dies, whether you’re righteous or unrighteous, that same fate comes to every person, and you’re forgotten. At least most people are. Ultimately, not much is remembered about them, and he says, Oh, just make the best of it. You know, if you have a wife, love her. If you have a good job, work at it diligently, make sure your clothes are right, take care of business.

But he says, at the end of the day, you can’t escape some of the things that happen. You may be caught in a snare unexpectedly. And so he says, I came to see this as wisdom under the sun, and it impressed me. And let me illustrate this problem of the options that we have in life, just as we’ve been talking about Abraham and Lot and the choice that Lot made in Genesis chapter 13. At the time, it seemed like a pretty good idea. A very calculated and wise decision for his future. But in regard to the two choices, and I don’t need to belabor this, we’ve been talking about in our adult class with Aaron. Who got the best deal? Abram says, Lot, you choose. Who got the best deal in that choice?

And may I suggest, as we learn from the story of Lot, may I suggest some bigger and greater goals than Lot had. We were discussing Lot’s righteousness in relation to 2 Peter chapter 2. We know at the very least, he had a lot to learn and a lot of room for spiritual growth in his righteousness. And it says, Lot lifted up his eyes. Young people, may I suggest some greater goals than that. Lot chose for himself. And look at what the end of those choices were. But I want to talk to you about even greater options. I want to talk to you about options that directly correlate or relate to your soul. Life and death choices. And here’s the neat thing about those choices. You have absolute control.

You have control. And all these other areas that we talked about, there are things beyond our ability to control and see, and things might happen that we would not wish. But in regard to life and death choices, you are in absolute control. And that is exactly what is being said to that young nation as they’re about to enter into the promised land in Deuteronomy chapter 30, in this classic set of verses that are applicable to every person of every generation of time. God says to us all, as Jared talked about, the universal option of salvation to everyone. See, I have set before you today life and prosperity. Death and adversity. You’re going to make that choice. You are making that choice. Life and prosperity, death and adversity.

In that I command you today, Moses says, to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, to keep his commandments, and his statutes and his judgments, the wonderful words of life, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God may bless you, the Israelites, in the land where you are entering to possess it. But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them. I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You shall not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.

So choose life. In order that you may live, you and your descendants. By loving the Lord your God, by obeying his voice, and by holding fast to him. For this is your life, and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Now I realize there’s some parts of that relate to the promise that was made to Abraham and coming into the land and possessing it and holding on to it. But the promises that relate to the soul. The promise of life versus death. Same option. It’s set before us. One writer’s expressed that these are not new thoughts in the book of Deuteronomy. They are expressed in prior statements in the book, but here in chapter 30, toward the end of the message, he’s combining them all in one package, and that raises the intensity of the appeal.

It is charged with a nearly evangelistic energy and emotion and urgency. You know I like preaching messages that are applicable to everyone and convey the urgency of us acting upon God’s things. And one point that is made about these choices that are set before them is that they are extremely personal. Don’t you wish sometimes that we could choose for other people? Choose life for them. You know, it’s one of those, duh. Choose life over death. Could I do that for someone else? A dear loved one, a friend. But this is an extremely personal choice. Your parents cannot make this choice for you. Your best friend cannot make this choice for you. You must make this choice. And you possess absolute control. And as so many scriptures, especially in the New Testament point out, that once you choose life and the course of life, there’s not anybody that can take it from you.

1. Deny Yourself or Affirm Self

As long as you pursue it. There’s no one strong enough. There’s no government powerful enough. There’s nobody with a gun that can take that choice from you. What is the nature of that choice? I want to look at three simple options that you have that somewhat summarize this choice between life and death. Choice number one. And it’s a big one. It’s a doozy. You can either deny yourself. That sounds like something I read in the New Testament once, doesn’t it? You can either deny yourself or you can affirm self. That I’m going to live my life in regard to what I think and what I want, what I want to do, how I want to behave. You can either affirm self or you can do what Jesus recommends that was his example, and that you can deny yourself.

Reducing it to its most simple level.

That is your choice. Please understand.

The more self is exalted and pursued, the more self will want and crave and never be satisfied.

The more a self that is surrendered, the more God like we become, the more our character is enriched, the more we positively affect our legacy in the world, and positively equip ourselves for divine association.

And I want to conclude this thought with this. Selfless training is the most needed training in our time.

We’re going to try to help you out with that tonight. We’re going to offer a service at five o’clock that will help you in that selfless train. By your mere presence at this place.

The instruction and the singing that will be done at that time. We will be contributing to this training that we all so desperately need. Because I want to tell you, we live in probably the most selfish culture that has ever been. Oh, I know there’s a lot of cultures that have been selfish. We talked about Sodom and Gomorrah, they were a selfish culture. But at least this culture, the United States of America, has never been more selfish. We had a me generation way back when, but we’ve got tire tracks on the back of that generation. So a lot of what we’re doing here. And one of the reasons why it’s not popular with some folks, but that is popular with you.

Because selfless training leads to life. Affirming self and doing what self wants to do and casting aside the commandments of God for a better way. That is not a better way. That is death. It will always be so.

2. Humble Myself Before God or Be Proud

Ed didn’t know how appropriate the song was. Wonderful words of life. Option number two. And it’s really related to the first. And that is you have an option. And again, this is completely within your control. I’m going to humble myself before God, or I am going to be proud. Perhaps this paradox, firmly entrenched it in your mind, young people. The paradox of Luke 14 and verse 11: he who humbles himself shall be exalted, but he who exalts himself shall be humbled. And that is an unavoidable truth. Some passages quickly. James explores these thoughts in great detail. God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves. And he will exalt you at the proper time. In that set of verses that encourage us to resist the devil but submit to God, and the devil will flee from you.

And really, it’s the choice that has always confronted man. A passage that is quoted several times in the New Testament. Perhaps you already recognize it. Habakkuk chapter 2 and verse 4. We’ve been talking about the book of Romans and justification by faith. Habakkuk 2.4 is quoted, the just shall live by faith. But the rest of the verse, behold, as for the proud one, his soul is not right within him. That’s your option. Humble yourself and submit to God, or elevate yourself and do what you will. We talk about pride sometimes in terms of just the most arrogant and egotistical person who thinks he or she is all that and a bag of chips, as we say. They are so inflated with their view of themselves. They may respect and admire other people, but the person they respect and admire the most is themselves.

And it causes everybody else around them to be nauseous. And so we think, I’m not that person. But when the Bible talks about the proud in relation to the humble, it’s not just the person who is so conceited that he makes everyone else sick around him. It is simply the person who has too high of an opinion of self that causes him, therefore, not to humble himself.

Before the Lord. We’ve been talking about John 8. You know, Jesus did some interesting things in his ministry that cause us to scratch our heads and say, wonder why he did that. And I think immediately off the top of my head, the healing of the blind man in Mark 8, where the healing process begins, but he doesn’t see everything very well. He says, I see men as trees walking. And then Jesus completely heals it. And I’ve suggested so many times about that story that I love, that it wasn’t that Jesus had a power outage. That he only healed him halfway, and then he had to go at it again and healed him ultimately, so that he could have 20-20 vision. But the point on that occasion was to talk about spiritual blindness and spiritual vision.

And how the disciples were seeing but not seeing as clearly as they were going to see. And he was moving them in that direction. Just like he moved the blind man in stages toward the direction of eyesight. But the other one that often comes up is the occasion of John 8, the woman taken in adultery. The law says she should be stoned. Always wondered where the man too? She was taken up in the very act. Well, the man had to be there. So why weren’t both? That’s always a bit of curiosity. I’m not going anywhere with that. Now, she deserves to die. And Jesus ultimately says, You are without sin, cast the first stone, and from the oldest to the youngest, they all ultimately went away.

And he says, Go and sin no more. Neither do I continue. Now, notice he did not approve of her conduct, nor did he say you can continue in the conduct. But here’s the part of the story that we often scratch our heads. Because when all this is taking place, Jesus stoops down and begins to write in the dust, in the ground. It’s like what is he just, what is he just annoyed or distracted? And I don’t know that I have the answer for sure, but there is something interesting. That perhaps the accusers, the religious elite in his audience, who are making the accusation, a passage that they might have drawn on that might have come to mind as Jesus was writing on the ground. And that is Jeremiah chapter 17.

And verse 13. That says this.

Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust. Because they have forsaken the Lord, the spring of living water. The New King James Version, the RSV of the ESB says, shall be written in the earth. I don’t know if the light bulbs went on for them or not. I don’t know if Jesus was thinking about that verse or not, but it is sort of interesting. Those who oppose God will be written in the dust. And Jesus knows their hearts that they had absolutely no compassion for this woman. No concern for her soul, and that they had no concern really for doing the law of God themselves. It is so easy to assess the failings of others. We could probably stand at the back and make a list.

The things I see in Tony that could be a lot better. We’re not going to do that. It is so easy to look at other people and to size them up and to suggest they can be better if they did this and didn’t do that. That’s easy to do. The hard part to do, and that’s what Matthew 7, 1 through 5 is about, is to be able to look at yourself and say, these are my failings, these are my faults. It is not the plight of another that is ultimately your greatest concern. Oh, it’s a concern. We need to be concerned about the motor of the speck in the brother’s eye. He didn’t say don’t be concerned about that. But the greatest concern that you have are these life and death choices that affect your eternal destiny.

3. Repent or Do What Feels Right

And it all boils down. Am I going to be eaten up with myself? Am I going to improperly elevate myself and my wisdom? I know better than God. I’m not going to submit to the righteousness of God or establish my own righteousness as the Jews did in Romans chapter 10 and verse 3. We’re good at giving passes to ourselves. Ignoring the truth about ourselves. Protecting our precious ego. And avoiding guilt and change. And so that leads me to point number three. You can repent or do what feels right. Unless you repent was the message Jesus gave. Unless you repent, you shall perish. Notice something in our reading Tuesday night from Mark 6. The instruction in Mark chapter 6. I’ve never made this connection before. As the disciples went out and they preached, they went out and preached in verse 12 that men should repent.

And the next thing that follows is the recounting of John the Baptist and Herod and that story. And John telling Herod and Herodias that they needed to repent. It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife. People don’t like that. To be told that they have to change, that they have to repent. That is the message of the gospel. It requires the acknowledgement of God’s standard. It requires then a self-assessment in relation to that standard, and then an admission that I have not measured up.

Conclusion

And then a commitment to change and conform to his will. With God’s assurance that it is a choice and decision that will pay off. And that was the message in Acts 3 in verse 19. Repent and be converted that your sins may be washed away, and times of refreshing will come from the presence of the Lord. So these are important choices. And I want to talk about three important questions that go with those choices. Question number one. What does Jesus teach? Familiarize and trust. Question number two. What does the world teach? Beware and avoid. Question number three. What exemplifies the attitude and behavior of a Christian? Implement and radiate. Here are life’s greatest choices. Providing certainty in the midst of uncertainty. How will you choose? Choice is a choice of life and death.

Will I obey the gospel for the cleansing of my sin? That is life. Will I come to the found of blessing to find life’s highest purpose and the hope of immortality? That is life. Or will I choose momentary pleasures and empty self-seeking to my ruin? Choose wisely. Choose life. Can we assist you in that choice this morning? Let’s stand and sing.