Choose to Live
Choose To Live
Introduction: Happy New Year…I love the idea of a New Year…I use the word Idea intentionally because what we do with that Idea makes all the difference in the World.
Transition: The theme for SEW and this First Series of the Year is NO FEAR…So with all the Expectation and Excitement of a Brand New Opportunity, Let’s Jump Into this.
If you are a guest at MercyGate or You consider MercyGate Home…I have a BIG ASK…I want you to promise to do your best to make every service of this Series and Spiritual Emphasis Week…I promise you…if you do that you will Position Yourself for Your Best Year Yet.
I’m going to read quite a bit of scripture because I want you to know where I am going in this series…it’s going to be Fire….
Deut 30:15-16
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 his ways, 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.
NIV
Deut 30:19-20
19 This day I call heaven and 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, and he will give you many years
NIV
- Moments and Minutes
- In 1999 Bishop Jakes wrote a book entitled Maximize Your Moment…in 2002 I read another book entitled “Seizing the Power of a Moment…”
- I read these books and they lit a fire in me but I never stopped to preach on them…
- It was a time in my life where I was reading a book a week and devouring information…not so much formation.
- When you are younger, time seems to move so slow and it seems like you have time to waste…but the older you get, time seemly speeds up.
- I think we feel this was often times because of how we mark time
- We Celebrate the Big Occasions such as Birthdays, Anniversaries, Big Events…even decades….
- The buzz now is 50 is the new 30…I’m sure someone in their late 50’s came up with that idea…
- Minutes
- We just entered into 2022…(WOW CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT)
- In the year 2022 you are going to be given 525,600 minutes this year….
- 1/3 of those minutes you will spend sleeping
- 1/3 of those minutes you will spend unconsciously just going through he motions of life…
- 1/3 of those minutes you can be fully engaged and fully present in those minutes
- Moments
- All the minutes do not have the same impact
- There will be 5 to 6 key moments within those minutes…what I call Divine Moments that will either unleash or advance the God size Dream you have in your heart
- I love a great movie…
- But what makes a great movie is the significant moments in the movie, not the length or the minutes of the movie
- What makes the most impact in minutes and moments is Choice
- If I asked what is the most spiritual activity you do in a day…
- Many would say, Worship
- Prayer
- Study
- Meditation
- A quiet Walk
- Reading Scripture….
- All those things are of the highest value and we should practice each of those disciplines….
- But because you were created in the image and likeness of God….the most supernatural activity you will engage in every day is CHOICE!!!!!
- If I asked what is the most spiritual activity you do in a day…
- In 1999 Bishop Jakes wrote a book entitled Maximize Your Moment…in 2002 I read another book entitled “Seizing the Power of a Moment…”
Deut 30:15-16
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 his ways, 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.
NIV
Deut 30:19-20
19 This day I call heaven and 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, and he will give you many years
NIV
- Choice
- What if God is waiting for us to do or to choose…
- We are often praying God do something…what if God is saying…it’s not my turn…it’s yours.
- God isn’t the Don’t God; He is the Do God
- 1st command in the Bible is: Eat Freely
- Endless number of choices and trees with a variety of fruit…
- There was only one tree they weren’t suppose to Eat from…and of course…they chose that Tree…
- And God’s reputation took a hit along with Adam and Eve falling into sin…Humanity began to see God as the Don’t God…instead of the Do God….
- Why would God give mankind the ability to Choose…Free Will…
- I’d contend it is because of Love
- How many were raised by a Don’t Parent…who here is a Don’t Parent?
- We all had at least one Don’t Parent…
- I know that because you are here today and you are alive…
- Don’t run with those scissors in your hand
- Don’t play in the street
- Don’t jump off of that
- Don’t eat the dog food
- Our response as Kids is usually
- Don’t tell me what to do…
- You are always trying to steal my freedom and joy…
- See we can’t violate the Don’t because we’ll never get to the Do’s.
- What if God is waiting for us to do or to choose…
- Choose
- Deut 30:15-16
15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.
- Choose Life and Prosperity…but we usually only see the part that says, death and destruction….
- Let me show you how Choice works
- Minutes have moments, moments have choices and choices have power….
- Moment and Momentum come from the same root
- When you take a picture with your phone…it captures a moment in time…and the picture will make you either long for or convince you time stands still…but we know it doesn’t.
- That is why a snapshot in times shouldn’t define you because the snapshot ceased, you are still moving through time with More Powerful Choices to Make
- Illustration: something you don’t know about me is I love Art…I can go to an art museum and spend all day…
- One of my favorite periods in art history is the Impressionist Period
- PUT UP A MONET PAINTING
- iii.My Favorite Artist is Monet – He brought painting to the brink of abstraction, but on no occasion crossed over into completely nonrepresentational imagery. One of the founders of French Impressionism, Monet painted outside (in the open air), where he refined his use of color to reveal the ambiance of natural light.
- iv.In his paintings Monet captured Moments…so if you walk up close to a Monet…it looks blurry and there are no clean or clear lines…but at a distance those moments become an Artful Masterpiece…
- The Greeks Understood it…inside the word Moment is the Greek word Atomos where we get the word Atom…
- The smallest of moments, this atom in time has within it Atomic
- Power
- Potential
- Opportunity
- The smallest of moments, this atom in time has within it Atomic
- What are we going to do to capture or unlock those Atomic Moments
- The average person will make 35,000 decisions in 2022
- You and I will regret about 30% of those decisions
- I think it’s the moments we know were there but we relinquished the responsibility of choosing to Seize the Moment…
- Momentum
- The challenge is
- Both our best and worse moments carry Momentum
- Some have been trapped in the worst moments momentum…even though now I’m making New Choices
- These Moments fill like Quick Sand…
- Brent shared this in the series he walked us through in Psalms 1 – Meditation means to Replace or Rehearse…
- What moments are you rehearsing….
- In Duet God is giving us an Out of Those Moments
- He says, “I set before you, Life and Death”
- Jesus is Life….
- See Through Jesus God already made His Choice…HE Chose You…He Chose Me…that isn’t the question…
- The question is: Will We Choose Him…
- The challenge is
Jer 29:11-12
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
NKJV
- This is the Do God Speaking to Us Right Here….
- Choose Life
- In Leadership I Like Options….Choices
- But I have found in Life there are things in which I have No Choice….
- Where I was born…
- Ethnicity
- Who I was born too
- The reality is…I didn’t even get to choose to Exist…I’m here so therefore I exist…
- But I Do Get To Choose to Live or Not…
- My Choice to LIVE impacts so many others….
- Duet.30:19 (b) – Choose life so your children may live….
- I find it interesting in Church…
- We often want to talk about generational curses or habits that we can pass down to our kids…
- But what about all the blessing you can pass down to your children…
- You can pass down life
- You can pass generational blessing down for 10 Generations…
- Closing – Benefits of a Choice
- Deut 30:19-20
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,
NIV
- I think we desire the benefits of a relationship with God…I’m just not sure we want God….
- I’m grateful over the years of my life I have had those people in my life who wouldn’t give up on me
- Wouldn’t quit me
- Wouldn’t walk out on me
- Didn’t walk out on my worse moments…even though I wanted them to
- Honestly, I wanted to walk out on some of my own worse moments….
- Can I tell you today…that is Who Jesus is
- He doesn’t just walk out on you when you are have bad moments…terrible minutes…that are leading to train-wreck hours….
- The Whole Time He is Saying: Choose Life….