Real Choices

Real Choices

(Deuteronomy 30:11-20; 1 Corinthians 3:1-9)

Sun, Feb  16 23, 2014, Windsor UBC, J G White

In the movie “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” there is a scene where Bilbo Baggins, the Hobbit who is accompanying 13 dwarves on a mission, unexpectedly disappears and seems to have abandoned the dwarves during a crucial battle. They were losing. Bilbo does return and the dwarves are victorious. Afterward Thorin (the dwarf leader) and Bilbao have a conversation.

[Thorin:] “Why did you come back? It matters! I want to know: why did you come back?”

[Bilbo:] “Look, I know you doubt me, I know you always have. And you’re right, I often think of Bag End. I miss my books. And my armchair. And my garden. See, that’s where I belong. That’s home. And that’s why I came back, cause you don’t have one. A home. It was taken from you. But I will help you take it back if I can.” (Ken Pell, Sermon Central)

The choices of characters in a fantasy story may be far from reality, but we are alive and well, with Christ, because of the choices God made for us.  To come, and join humanity, and die, so that we would have a life and a home with the Lord, now and always.  

In our own unexpected journeys, we have choices to make.  Sometimes the options do not seem possible, as we strive for the good life, in ourselves, in our families, in community, even in churches.  But I am sure that what the Lord tells us, using the Bible, is possible.  We are taught what we can do.  We are promised what can be real.  

So one of my favourite texts about this would have to be from Deut 30 (15) See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.   So said Moses, in his final speeches to the Hebrews.  

You can choose to obey all these laws from God, Moses tells them.  Not unlike what his successor, Joshua, said to the people a few years later, as they take over the Promised Land.  (Joshua 24:15)  ...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."  

The choice to know and love and follow the Lord God is an important choice.   The first time we choose God, and every day afterwards.  There are other options.  But choosing God is the choice that brings life to us.

Hundreds of years later was the time of Jesus.  At one point in His itinerant preaching career, Christ had gathered hundreds of followers.  But his teaching became, one day, very demanding.  In John 6 we can read:  Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, "Do you also wish to go away?" [There’s the choice!]  Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. (66-68)

Real choices are possible.  And they are possible when the word is near us.  Hear again what Moses said, in his final speeches before his death.  Speeches about all the laws and commandments for the life, their life of walking with the Lord God.  11 Surely, this commandment that I am commanding you today is not too hard for you, nor is it too far away.  The choice of the people, those thousands of years ago, was a real choice: they could step up and do right, do well, obey and live.   In the New Testament, the things Jesus teaches are possible for those who are His own.  God does not ask the impossible of us.  With God all things are possible.  

Real choices are possible because God creates the Community of Faith. Obedience is communal; and we support one another’s choices.  We follow the best pathways together, and our own personal choices can be lived out with the support of the family of God.

In his speech, Moses summed up:  If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. (30:16)  Moses was speaking to a whole nation, in a time of transition.  Here we are, a few thousand years later, and the same God is speaking to us, Windsor Baptist.  We can choose good steps and changes together, guided by our Lord.  

141 years ago we decided to stop renting pews and rely upon voluntary tithes and offerings to finance our ministry.  Over 100 years ago we decided to rebuild on this site after everything had burned. Over 40 years ago we started to have more than one Pastor on staff for the work of our ministry.  Today, we evaluate what we do in light of our present vision from the Lord, and prepare to make the real choices that are before us.

Real choices are possible because the various parts of obedience support the others.  Long ago, Moses spoke of  loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days (30:20).  The choice of the Hebrew people to obey the command as they entered the Promised Land was the choice to follow many, many instructions.  Not just one commandment.  There was the ten big commandments.  And then there was the multitude of other life rules, described in Exodus, and Leviticus, and reiterated in Deuteronomy.  All the parts of their good life with the Lord fit in with the other obedient ways.  Loving God helps loving one’s neighbour, and vice versa.  Worshipping God goes hand-in-hand with taking a day of rest for oneself and one’s household.  

Real choices are possible because there are steps and stages over time.  One thing that seems impossible to us today, may be possible in the future, after we have master some other task.  Loving my enemies - by actually wanting good things to happen to them - might be possible later, after I have grown to love myself rightly, and love my neighbours well.  One step at a time.

Along with that Old Testament bit, from Moses, we also heard from Paul, a Christian, in his first letter to the Corinthians - believers of Jesus in Corinth, Greece.  Paul wrote:  And so, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.  I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. (3:1-2)  It takes time to mature as a saved person, and as a disciple of the Master, Jesus.  

This special lecturer a week ago at Acadia really emphasized the need for pastors and preachers to focus upon growing Christians into mature believers.  Grow up, in Christ, don’t stay as babies in the Faith.  This takes time and attention… our whole lives.  

When children learn math, they learn to add and subtract.  The teacher does not say, “Because thou can not do fractions, thou shalt not do algebra” as if that were a rule.  One simply needs to be able to add and subtract and so forth before one is capable of algebra.  So it is in our personalities, our character.  I may only be able to choose to be generous and sacrificial with my money after I have been shaped by the Spirit into the kind of person who can deal well with anger.  Or I might need to take many steps of prayer and fasting before I am able to choose not to worry.   Real choices come in steps and stages, with God.

And… Real choices are possible because of God’s action with our actions. This is grace: God doing more in us than we can do alone.

We heard today more of what Paul wrote to his Christian friends who were disagreeing over their church leadership.   What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each.  I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.  So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.  The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each.  For we are God's servants, working together (5-9).

God gives the growth.  Others, mere humans, cooperated, did their part.  The Lord took that good work and worked real miracles in their lives!  So it always is.   We can choose good and right things because God is for us, not against us, and God adds to what we obediently do.  Have confidence, friends, in the Lord, who can do so much with the little we can do.  Our feeble efforts can be made into free-flowing miracles by our Mighty Saviour!

There was a man who got lost in the desert. After wandering around for a long time his throat became very dry, about that time he saw a little shack in the distance.

He made his way over to the shack and found a water pump with a small jug of water and a note.

The note read: "pour all the water into the top of the pump to prime it, if you do this you will get all the water you need". Now the man had a choice to make, if he trusted the note and poured the water in and it worked he would have all the water he needed. If it didn’t work he would still be thirsty and he might die. Or he could choose to drink the water in the jug and get immediate satisfaction, but it might not be enough and he still might die. After thinking about it the man decided to risk it. He poured the entire jug into the pump and began to work the handle, at first nothing happened and he got a little scared but he kept going and water started coming out. So much water came out he drank all he wanted, took a shower, and filled all the containers he could find. Because he was willing to give up momentary satisfaction, he got all the water he needed. Now the note also said: after you have finished, please refill the jug for the next traveller.” The man refilled the jug and added to the note: “ Please prime the pump, believe me it works”!  (Randy Leckliter, Sermon Central)

Little day-to-day choices, and our big choices, take faith in God. Trust that what is promised is real.  Confidence that our Redeemer is guiding and is active in the choices we make.  Belief in our hearts that there is an endless supply for our souls and bodies, as we walk with the Lord.  

Let us choose and act in the name of Jesus, the one who gives living water, the One who blesses us with the guidance of the present Holy Spirit.  With the Lord, anything is possible!

Let us pray.

Lord God of truth, we heard the words of Moses today.  We heard the words of Paul today.  We heard the words of Pastor Jeffrey today.  We heard our own thoughts.  Continue to speak, by Your Spirit, to our souls. Protect us from thoughts and impressions that we need not follow.  Keep our minds and hearts keen for Your truth and love.  We submit and praise You: speak, Lord, for Your servants are listening.  AMEN.