LIFE LESSONS

You Choose

(Memorial Day Video)

We all owe more than we can calculate to those who have served our country through the armed services. It is right that we take time to remember and honor the sacrifice of those who have served and given their lives so that we might enjoy our freedom.

There are many traditions that highlight this weekend – parades and fireworks and moments of silence.

One of the most fitting occurs when on Memorial Day our country’s flag is raised to the top of the staff, and then lowered back down to the half-staff position, where it remains until noon.

The half-staff position commemorates the more than one million men and women who gave their lives in service to our country. At noon, though, the flag is raised to the top of the staff again, as a sign of the resolve that we who are living will not let those sacrifices be in vain, but we will also rise up and continue to fight for liberty and justice for all.

We are blessed in these United States of America. Even with a sagging economy and uncertain security and natural disasters like earthquakes and tornadoes, we are still graced by God to live here in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

We are graced, because our lives are a gift, and we have not earned the blessings that God has made available to us.

These last few weeks we have been focused in worship on LIFE LESSONS – things you learn about how to live from your experience or wisdom that has been passed down to you from someone who is older and wiser.

What is the life lesson for today?

You Choose.

You choose your life. Even though you don’t always get to choose what happens to you, you do get to decide how to respond. You don’t choose your circumstances, but you do choose the kind of person you will be and the kind of person become in those circumstances.

I think this is an important truth to let sink into our spirits right now. As a country and a people at this point in our history, we are going through a kind of collective malaise. There is a sense that we’re down and we’re not sure how to get back up again.

So starting next week, we’re going to focus for the month of June on a new worship series – I’m calling it Great Truths for Challenging Times.

(Great Truths for Challenging Times Slide)

Because when you’re going through the roughest storms of your life, you’re looking for an anchor to secure your position and you’re looking for solid ground to stand on.

And the solid ground and the anchor are found in God and in His Word. He will be our security. Here (in God’s Word) you will find sure footing and strong encouragement and bedrock truth that you can count on.

So today’s life lesson is a kind of bridge. You need to receive this foundational truth about life – You Choose – so that you can cross over to and experience the hope and the joy that lays waiting for you in God’s Word next month.

So let’s get the Biblical reference point for this Life Lesson.

We’re going to read from the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Torah or the Law. It is basically God’s inspired word through Moses as he gave his farewell address to the Israelites on the plains of Moab.

For 40 years God’s people had been wandering in the Sinai wilderness because they had refused to go into the Promised Land of Canaan at God’s direction after leaving Egypt.

Now Moses is about to die, and the mantle of leadership is being passed down to the next generation.

In this final charge to His people, Moses goes over the laws concerning worship, relationships and leadership that God has given to His people.

And then this is how Moses concludes:




^"11 Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. ¹² It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, "Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?" ¹³ Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, "Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?" ¹⁴ No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.
  ¹⁵ See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. ¹⁶ For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to Him, and to keep His commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
  ¹⁷ But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, ¹⁸ I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
  ¹⁹ This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live ²⁰ and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him. For the LORD is your life." – Deuteronomy 30:11-20
You choose. You choose your life.

You see, there’s no room in God’s word for excuses or victimization or sloughing off. Everyone has challenges in life. Everyone. Some people have it easier than you, and some have it much worse. That’s just the way it is.

How are you going to respond to your challenges? Some people like to say, "God says He won’t put more on you than you can handle."

Can I tell you what that is? It’s a falsehood. I’m just being honest here. Now I don’t mean that people who say that are liars – I just mean that statement is incorrect.

It’s a mis-statement of a Biblical truth.

Here’s the verse that people are usually thinking of when they say that God won’t put more on you than you can bear:

"No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but will with the temptation also provide a way of escape, so that you may be able to endure it." – I Corinthians 10:13

What’s that saying? It’s saying that no one who sins can claim, "The devil made me do it." Or "I was just overcome by my desire." Or "if God had really wanted me to stay away from this activity, He wouldn’t have made me this way."

That verse has to do with overcoming sinful desires, and the promise we have is that God will give those who belong to Him the supernatural ability through the Indwelling Spirit and the Word of God and seeking Him in prayer and the encouragement and accountability of other believers – the ability for you to say "NO. I will not succumb to this sinful desire or tendency or habit."

So that truth is about temptation. It’s not about encountering circumstances in your life that are beyond your ability to bear up under.
So if God doesn’t promise not to put more on me than I can handle, then am I off the hook?

Let’s look at another passage that the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write, this one from Second Corinthians:

"For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. (I think there are folks who feel this way right now.) Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. (This reminds me of Job in all his troubles. He asked God, if it was going to go this bad, why did You even let me be born?) But that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead." – II Corinthians 1:8-9

So now we’re getting back to the root of our issues.

God actually does let you go through difficulty and yes, He actually puts challenges in your life so that you will discover that it IS MORE THAN YOU CAN BEAR. You see, God didn’t design you to be self-sufficient. He created you to find your sufficiency and fortitude and strength in Him.

In Him you find life, because the LORD IS YOUR LIFE.

You know, I was talking yesterday with another dad. He and his wife have four children, ages 5 through 11. His oldest daughter plays tournament basketball with Annie and she’s also on a competition dance team. And he has a son who is an all-star caliber baseball player. So he and his wife have a lot going on all the time. And so we’ve always had this kind of connection where we understand one another. And he said to me, "All I do is work and this family stuff. That’s all I do. But I wouldn’t change it for anything. This is what I want to do."

And he went on to open up a little and share with me that his family background growing up was really challenging, and that he struggled as a young man with setting the right priorities and making good decisions. But then he decided that he didn’t want his kids going through the same things he went through. So he made some changes.

And he said, "I can’t do it for them. But I can do my best to be there for them and give them the tools to do what they want with the abilities they have. I want them to be the best they can be."

We all get that, don’t we? We all feel the same way about our kids.

Folks, these may be the hardest times that my generation has endured. No, it doesn’t compare with the Great Depression or World War II, but the struggles that we all are facing are real and significant.

So what are we gonna do? Are we powerless? Are we doomed? Or are we just gonna try to hunker down and get our own and quit caring about everyone else?

Is that your choice? Is that the legacy you want to pass on?

God says to us in His Word, "I set before you life and prosperity or death and destruction."

There’s no middle ground there.

If you love the Lord your God above all else, and you walk in obedience to Him, then you will live and increase and the Lord will bless you. He will bless you with His presence and His strength and His character and His provision for your life.

But if your heart turns away, and you chase after other gods as the ultimate joy and fulfillment and goal of your life, you will certainly be destroyed.

You have a choice. We all have a choice.

Your circumstances don’t dictate who you are or how you decide to respond to life’s challenges.

You choose.