God Chose Choice

Step 2 of Simple Faith

February 1, 2009

Pastor Tom Shedd

 

Review - 5 steps

1       God is huge and for you.

2       God chose choice.

3       Choice has consequences.

4       God chose to pay.

5       You can choose God.

 

Review step 1: Huge and you

 

Article in Wired - “Live Free or Drown” -- a new scheme for independence: form your own country by buying an island. Make your own rules. What rules would you make? You have choices.

 

Animals and choices. How do they make choices?

Studies of rats in mazes. They learn from their mistakes.

 

A common feature of our existence - living animals can make choices.

 

God chose choice.

READ “Choice” Max Lucado - Mary Lou reads (10 min.)

 

The difficult questions:

Does that mean that God is not sovereign if He allows choice?

 

Does God know everything before it happens?

 

Does God determine anything?

 

Does God determine everything?

 

Does choice contradict sovereignty?

 

Does God know who is going to respond to the offer of salvation?

 

Does God elect some for salvation?

 

Or does man have free will to make that choice himself without God’s hand?

 

How a multidimensional universe allows God to exist independently of time.

Assume that angels exist. How come you can’t see them? They must exist in a way that is different from the way you and I exist.

 

String theory -- the universe exists in 11 dimensions.

 

Multiple dimensions of time.

 

Seven principles of choice.

 

1)      God chose choice.

 

Before the beginning, in the mind of God, He made decisions about how He was going to build His creation.

 

The age of the universe is the time elapsed between the Big Bang and the present day. Current theory and observations suggest that this is between 13.61 and 13.85 billion years.[1] The uncertainty range has been obtained by the agreement of a number of scientific research projects. Scientific instruments and methods have improved the ability to measure the age of the universe with a great accuracy. These projects included background radiation measurements and more ways to measure the expansion of the universe. Background radiation measurements give the cooling time of the universe since the big bang. Expansion of the universe measurements give accurate data to calculate the age of the universe.

 

Before the physical universe was created, there were beings that existed in the heavenly realm.

 

In the opening of the book of Job is a remarkable conversation between God and Satan about Job, which indicates that there was a relationship from before the time of man.

 

At the creation of man, Satan exists in the garden and is there to tempt man and woman at the beginning.

 

In Isaiah, there is a reference to the existence of Satan before the creation.

Isaiah 14

 12 “How you are fallen from heaven, O shining star, son of the morning! You have been thrown down to the earth, you who destroyed the nations of the world.

 13 For you said to yourself, ‘I will ascend to heaven and set my throne above God’s stars. I will preside on the mountain of the gods far away in the north.

 14 I will climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High.’

 15 But instead, you will be brought down to the place of the dead, down to its lowest depths.

 

Therefore, from before the creation of man, God allowed choice, even in the heavenly realm.

 

2)      Choice is an operative principle in the universe.

 

 Among living organisms - even single cell Amoeba make choices.

 

Have you ever watched dogs when they know they’ve done something wrong? Dogs can make choices about their behavior.

Rick and Janet’s dogs make choices. There was a tragedy in their house last year when one of the dogs, probably Marty, chose to end the lives of the puppies of Cha Cha. Why would she do that? She felt threatened by them for some reason. She made a choice.

 

Humans also choose as a part of the creation. We make choices about how we live. We make choices about what we believe. We make choices about truth. We make choices about appropriate and inappropriate behavior. We make choices about law. We make choices about what kind of work we will do. We make choices about the people we will associate with and the people we will not associate with.

 

Choice is what we do every day, every minute. There is no question that choice is an operative principle in the universe, especially for humans.

 

3)      It is good to have choice.

 

When God created the heavens and the earth He said, “It is good”. He created the universe just the way He wanted it. He created the universe with creatures who choose, therefore having choice is a good thing.

 

God did not make any mistakes. God knew that having choices means that creatures will choose. If they choose then there is the possibility that they will choose either of two choices. So it is no surprise to God that we will make choices that are good and choices that are bad. He designed the universe to operate that way. He purposed to give choice. He wants you and me to have choice. Choice is a good thing.

 

We need to give thanks that we can choose. We are not puppets in a controlled universe. We are free to make choices. We are not slaves who are confined to a predetermined existence. We have tremendous freedom to choose what our lives become. You can choose to make your life different than it is. You are not locked in.

 

If you want to make a career change in your 50’s you can choose to do that. It might be painful for a while as you go through it, but you can do it. Many people do. You can choose to believe something that you’ve never believed before. You can choose not to believe something that you have always believed. You can change political parties. You can change churches. You can change habits.

 

Change is a good thing. We praise God that He has made us with the capability of making change. Change is a good thing!

 

4)      Choice carries consequences.

 

When we make choices, there are consequences: consequences for good and consequences for bad. You can choose to smoke cigarettes. You are free to do that if you want. But we have come to understand that the consequences of choosing to smoke can be very bad. Lung cancer. Addiction to nicotine. When you choose to smoke, you are choosing to take on a very large risk of trouble down the road with your health.

 

When we choose good, there are good consequences. When I chose to ask Mary Lou to marry me, I made a good choice. Good consequences have followed for 26 years.

 

When I have made bad choices, and I have, I have had to live with the bad consequences.

 

I remember a guy talked me into changing drivers of an RV while he was driving it on the freeway. He slid away as I took over driving. We changed seats while we were on the freeway. That was one of the stupidest choices I have ever made. The people in the back screamed at us that we had done that. They were right. It was really stupid. The possible negative consequences far, far, far outweighed what little advantage we gained by not pulling over to change drivers. Really dumb. We were very fortunate that we didn’t roll the thing or crash into another vehicle.

 

I have made other decisions in life that I see now were equally stupid. How I could have made those choices? I made them because I thought at the time that the benefits outweighed the risks. I convinced myself that the consequences weren’t really that bad.

 

I have made good choices as well. I don’t regret choosing music rather than physics, although I still wish I could have done both. I don’t regret going into the ministry. I have enjoyed the ride and feel that I have done some good along the way. I think God gifted me in certain ways to do certain things and I have chosen to let Him lead me. I never, ever, thought that I would be a pastor of a church like Wings of Faith, but that’s part of the adventure. I like that our church is different. I like that we are continuing to make choices.

 

Very quickly, at our Leadership Council meeting Friday night we made some decisions about what we are going to do for Easter. We are going to try to have a Seder brunch for TLC on Palm Sunday morning. Going into the meeting none of us had considered doing that. The decision came as a result of our discussion. I was planning on doing something completely different for Palm Sunday. We made choices. How cool is that? We’re going to attempt something we’ve never done before.

 

It is our prayer and our intent that the consequences will be good. We feel that this will benefit the faith community of TLC. We are going to invite clients, their families, the staff, the administration, and all of our supporters.

 

We are also going to have a Seder for ourselves on Wednesday night, April 8, because we will be very busy on that Sunday morning. It will be a gift of service on Sunday morning to present a Seder to the TLC community.

 

We are free to make that choice, and we believe that there will be good consequences.

 

5)      Choice carries responsibility.

 

You can make decisions about your own life -- for good and for bad.

 

Couple decided to kill themselves and their children last week because they both lost their jobs. That is poor choice. That is irresponsible. There were other ways to deal with the situation.

 

When we make choices we realize that those choices impact not only ourselves but also those around us. Our choices affect our families, our choices affect our friends, our choices affect our church.

 

When we make good choices, we reflect well on those around us. People can cheer with our success. They can enjoy the positive feelings when we do good. Today is Super Bowl Sunday. The team that makes the better choices during the game will win the game. All of their fans will get to enjoy the thrill of victory. But if a player makes poor decisions, it takes away from that thrill. Even if a player makes poor choices off the field, even in the off season, there will be many people who will be affected by those decisions. Players in the spotlight have greater responsibility. Kids and adults look up to them and see them as role models. Some handle this well.

Last night on the news there was a story about one NFL player who has purchased homes for 27 poor single mother families. Wow. That is an example to follow.

 

Conversely when we make poor choices, we also reflect on those around us. We disappoint people, we let them down, we make them sad.

 

With choice comes responsibility.

 

6)      Both Independence from God and Dependence on God are important.

 

A)     Independence from God.

 

God wants you to be independent from Him. He wants you to work through the process of making choices. He wants you to provide for yourself and your family as though He is not there.

 

He wants you to have faith, but He also wants you to make decisions. He wants you to step out and do your own thing. He wants you, in one sense, to operate as though He is not there.

 

B)      Dependence on God.

 

But God wants you to be dependent on Him. God wants you to trust Him, to pray, and to ask for His guidance. God wants your decision making to be in consultation with Him. He wants to guide you. He wants to give you wisdom. He chides you when you don’t seek His wisdom. Why? Because He knows more than you know. He sees more than you see. He knows what is right and smart when you don’t.

 

He does not force Himself on us. But He is available to us, and we are idiots not to recognize that.

 

7)      God is pro-choice.

Not in the sense of abortion advocates -- in that discussion I think that God is pro-life.

 

But God is for choice. God wants you to make choices.

 

When you pray for help in making a decision, God might not write the answer out in big letters in the sky. He might want you to make choices.

 

When you pray for investment guidance, God won’t pick your stocks. God will want you to make choices.

 

When you have to make a big decision about a job, God won’t make it for you. He wants you to choose. He wants you to get wise counsel, he wants you evaluate the pros and cons. He wants you to do research. All of that is part of choice and choice is a part of God’s design for living creatures in His universe.

 

So where does prayer come in? Sometimes God will intervene directly. It does happen. I believe that miracles do occur. But most of the time God’s work is hidden -- he will arrange circumstances, he will influence people, he will arrange timing.

 

God chose choice from the beginning, and choice is good. God is huge and is for you. In our steps to Simple Faith, the second step is that God chose choice. We make a big deal about that because it is a big deal. It is one of the basic truths of the human experience. You can choose to live with God in His Kingdom or you can choose not to. You can choose His provision for dealing with sin or you can choose not to. You can choose to live every day with Him and pray, study the Scripture, do good works, love as He loves, or you can choose to live for yourself.

 

But without a doubt, you can choose. God has purposed to make you in such a way that you are free to make choices.

 

Earlier in the service we read from Romans 6. In that passage God tells us that we are slaves of sin but that we can make choices not to follow that.

 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

Let’s pray and ask Him to help us choose wisely, shall we?

 

Next week, the consequences of choice.

 

PRAY