Choices

“Choices”

One unique and distinct characteristic that differentiates human beings from the rest of God’s creations is human beings are given the freewill to choose – they are given that privilege by God to make choices. This is what makes human beings different from any other creations on earth. But human beings are smart – they are inclined to choose something which looks good; something which they know will benefit them or something which appeal to their logic and intellect and so on. What I have just said applies globally, to all human beings as a whole.

At this moment, I am speaking before you as a servant of God, so it is appropriate that I narrow down what I have just said about our understanding of human beings to just Christians – the people who have put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

As Christians, we are not exempted from making choices. In our Christian walk, we are constantly confronted with situations and challenges where we have to make choices.

It is said – “the choices we make today will determine our victory tomorrow”. Yet, it is very sad to know that many Christians still make bad choices! For example:
• You want to attend a church service but your boss wants to come and visit you – what do you do?
•You want to have fellowship in church but your best friend wants to buy you dinner- which do you choose?
•You want to pray but your girl friend phoned you and wants to chit chat – what do you do?
Which do you choose to do? What choice will you make? Isn’t that difficult?

For this reason, today I want to share with you my message titled “Choices” and obviously, I am going to use the Word of God as my reference.

Come with me to the Book of Joshua – turn your Bible to

Joshua 24:14-15:
14″Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

• what is your “other god”? Do you have an “other god”? You may be wondering what “other god” am I talking about – let me give you some examples.

Let me tell in the Chinese culture, there are superstitions – for example: “days” – you can’t go out on this day, you can’t do that on this day etc; then there is “shio” – if you born in the year of the rat, you can marry a tiger, if you born day time in the year of the tiger, you are a not a fierce tiger, if you were born night time, you are a “man eater” tiger etc; then there is “ciong” – it is no good for you to do business with that man coz it’s ciong – bad karma etc etc…..are some of these your “other god” even though you are a Christian?

Choice 1

Genesis 13:10-11 and 14-15 (Amplified Bible) -
And Lot looked and saw that everywhere the Jordan valley was well watered. Before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, (it was all) like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as you go to Zoar. Then Lot chose for himself all the Jordan valley, and (he) traveled east, so they (Lot and Abraham) parted.”

14The LORD said to Abraham, after Lot had left him, Lift up now your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; For all the land which you see I will give to you and your posterity forever.”

Lot’s choice, the choice he made according to his flesh, signifies Christians who choose and seek the “easy way” – these are the “instant minded” Christians. If you read the Bible you should know the ending of Lot’s story! It is bad!

“Instant minded” Christians or “Christians of the valley” – they consider wealth and riches of the world as THE blessing of God. Even though they have been blessed, they continue to ask to be blessed more and more but they are never a blessing to others – there is no praise, no thanksgiving or gratitude.

“Christians of the valley” are always shallow and superficial in their spiritual life – if they hear a hard message, they will be upset with the pastor’s wife – as a result the pastor holds back from preaching a hard but truthful message!

These Christians want to be entertained with “nice” and “comfortable” messages – if the message is funny, all the better!

• But note this – when Jesus saves you and I, it was not a funny or light matter – it cost Him His blood, His obedience and His love.

Christians who are shallow in their spiritual life is easy to see – they come to church to be served rather than to serve. They are also easily offended – if the pastor doesn’t hello, they are not coming to church next week!

These spoilt Christians (I will call them tourist) treat church as a “love boat” – church is a place of leisure where they are being served and entertained. On the other hand, real Christians – the “Christians of the mountain” treat church as a battle ship – (in battle ship, there are no tourist, all crew!) and they know their responsibilities. They serve rather than wait to be served – they are in church to be in the presence of God, to listen to His Word and to be convicted to change – not to be entertained! These “Christians of the mountain” dare to pay the price – pay the price to be different, to answer the call of God on their lives to serve and reach those who are lost in the world!

Colossians 3:1-2
1Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

Choice 2

After Lot had chosen to take the well watered Jordan valley for himself, obviously Abraham had to take the leftover and these are the highlands and mountains areas. Even though this is the “leftover” but this is the will of God for Abraham. Even though it looks to be a bad place, the point is God is there and Abraham is in the will of God!

We all know where there is the presence of God, there is also the blessing of God. Even in a place like a desert – when the Israelites were in the wilderness for 40 years – God looked after them. Their shoes never worn out, they were never sick, God fed them with supernatural manna from heaven and they were assured of God’s presence – 21By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. (Exodus 3:21)

Very often, we see that the will of God is not promising in the natural.

Very often we also see that to do the will of God is very hard and heavy to shoulder.

But we also see that though Abraham received the leftover, in the end his leftover was blessed in an extraordinary way by God.

• So as Christians, do not just always look or chose things that appeals to the natural eye but be Christians who look and seek the face of God because God says that “whosoever seeks Me will not be disappointed”.  Children of God who looks heavenwards, see with spiritual eyes and gain spiritual insights.

Abraham always sees and looks to God and even though he knows his portions are “highlands and mountains”, he still chose to receive the leftovers.

Christians who want to live in the will of God will be Christians who are strong, tough and sturdy – they endure and are hard to defeat – they are “Christians of the mountain”.

To do the will of God is to be obedient to His Word and His Word commands us to tithe, to be baptized, to love God, to love your neighbour as yourself etc….

There is nothing that is easy in the “highlands and mountain areas” – it requires effort and hard work to ascend and descend from those places – sometimes there are ravines and obstacles. Likewise, it is not always easy to do the will of God but if you are willing to obey, there will be the grace of God for you to carry it out to completion. 1 John 2:17 17 “The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.”

To climb mountains, we need to strive, fight, endure and overcome – this also applies to our spiritual life, if we want to grow to the next level – we need to strive, endure and overcome. We need to fight and overcome our flesh to attend church services, we need to be persistent to worship, we need to fight and overcome our flesh to tithe faithfully to the Lord etc …– all of these are not easy, sometimes they can be heavy but there is also found the grace and promises of God! (For example in the “wilderness”, His promise is I’ll never or forsake you; if you tithe, 0Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.)

Through these struggles and challenges, our faith is tested – and we ought to pass this test so that we can progress to the next spiritual level.  An analogy is our school teachers – they do not test us because they have bad intentions but they need to do that to find out the depth of our knowledge and understanding of what they have taught us. This is the same for God – He test us to find out the depth of our inner fortitude – our revelation of Him and the strength of our faith in Him.

• We have to be strong and courageous to overcome all challenges and to use our faith. When you go to the shops, you have to bring money; when you come before Father God, if you don’t bring faith, you’ll go away disappointed. Faith is our very precious asset!

For people without faith, the door of heaven is closed because faith believes every promises of God. Christians who have faith – Christians who are faithful to the Word – Christians who use their faith – they have strong and well-developed muscles.

Illustration: If you observe people who are paralyzed, their muscles do not developed and shrink over time because the muscles have not been used. For Christians, if you do not use your faith, gradually you will have no faith!

Faith rejects doubt because faith knows that all the promises of God are “Yes” and “Amen”

Those who want to grow their spiritual life to higher levels must undergo trials and tribulations, they must overcome these obstacles in their Christian life – they must use their “muscles of faith”.

Illustration : – I first know Ashley as a teenager when he was in the same youth group with my daughters in Perth. At that time, I know Ashley loves to play with the body board when they go to the beach. A few years ago, I accidentally met Ashley again in a beach – Ashley has grown up and he’s now a young man. Ashley had a surf board in his arms – we spoke and Ashley told me he loves to surf. My instinct respond was, “Ashley, aren’t you scared that you’ll drown? Aren’t you scared of the big waves?” Ashley look at me astonished, frowned then reply, “Come on, Sebastian. The bigger the waves, the more exciting it is to surf. I can’t drown as long as my ankle is strapped firmly to my surf board!”

Ashley’s experience teaches us a good lesson – as long as our life is tied to Jesus, we will not fear drowning in this life no matter how big the waves of challenges that hit us. We will surf the waves – move with the waves up and down – and enjoying every minute of it!

When the big waves come, we will not fear because with our “faith surf board” – we will always ride above the waves – above the challenges, trials and tribulations of this life. With our eyes of faith, we can look heavenwards and know that the throne of grace of God is above all of our problems.

Choice 3

Matthew 27 : 17 and 21
17So when the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, “Which one do you want me to release to you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?”

21″Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” asked the governor.

Who will you choose – Jesus or Barabbas?

Jesus represents holiness, generosity, compassion, honesty, integrity, goodness, humility, obedience and love.

Barabbas – he was a thief, filth of society

Which will you choose – to attend church service or stay at home?

Will you choose God or your business and career?

Never, never exchange Jesus with anything – never exchange the safety of your soul with anything!

Come back to where we started in

Joshua 24:15 “But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

Joshua chose God Jehovah, the El Shaddai and throughout his life, Joshua reaped victory after victory. In his lifetime, Joshua defeated and conquered 31 pagan kings in big battles – what a mighty feat and achievements!

This is the same for us – when we choose Jesus, when we choose to follow His footsteps in the way He conducts Himself on this earth – when we are with Jesus, we will “conquer” and overcome every problems in our life. With Jesus, we can accomplish great feats – achieve great goals – live a fulfilled life – because He is El Shaddai – the God of more than enough.

Comments are closed.