Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Choose! Pt.1

Hallelujah! Amen. Let's turn to the book of Deuteronomy. We want to take a look tonight, for just a moment, at a principle that I think is so important for us to get a hold of as we continue the lifelong process of learning to walk in the spirit. The Scripture says if you walk in the spirit, you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Amen? We want that life that honors the Lord. We want to live and present our bodies, our temples, as living sacrifices, holy, acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service. For all of us, it's just a process. There's not one person in here whose spiritual life has just been on a constant plane.

Now, some of us, of course, look like a roller coaster, but, praise God, you're still hanging on. We rode one of the roller coasters just the other day. We were at Kings Dominion. There's a lot of the different rides, and there was this new one out that I kind of liked. I like the ones that twist all upside down and do all of that kind of stuff, but this one was a little different; it wasn't that way. I was thinking, as we were riding it, about the Christian life of so many people. This new one, I don't remember what it's called, but they put you in this little thing, and it's compressed air catapulted. It's like what they launch airplanes with, and you go from 0 to 80 in 1.8 seconds. It's kind of cool. Then it just shoots you out at about 80 miles an hour in a second, and then you go, literally--it doesn't appear to be, you literally then go straight up in the air. You get up there, and it scrubs the momentum enough until you get to the top and you just barely make it over, then you go straight back down! I was thinking of the Christian life. Many of us get shot out at times. We're praying and we get all fired up, man! We shoot out, and we're just soaring up there, and then all of a sudden we just kind of lose our momentum. You know what I'm talking about, some of you? The next thing you know--but aren't you glad that He's never going to leave us nor forsake us? Amen?

We want to talk about the grace that He's given us to make the right choices, to continue and not faint. For the Scripture says that in due season you're going to reap if you don't faint. You may not always make the right choices at the moment, but can I encourage you tonight? Make the right choice to get up. Amen? Why should we stay here and die? Those men, as they were moved by that wisdom: "Why should we just sit here and die? Let's at least go make an effort to see what God might do on our behalf." I want to encourage some of you that are discouraged and some of you that are experiencing that type of a life, but I want you to understand that you're involved in this process. Many of us are almost fatalistic as we understand the sovereignty of God, and we just say, "Well, if God wants to do it, He'll do it." God is sovereign, and in His sovereignty, He's chosen to give you free will. And He expects you to use it to make choices to honor Him, to believe His Word, because faith (belief) is an action; it's obedience. Faith gives substance to what you hope for. Faith is the evidence, the belief, that what you haven't seen is reality, and you're going to continue to pursue it--Him, Who is, as we've shared, invisible.

So I want to talk about the sovereignty of God, but from a little different perspective. I want us to understand that God is sovereign, but in His sovereignty He has chosen to give us free will. Now, we know that the theologians fight about this all the time, and there is no fight. The Scripture is absolutely clear on the fact that God is absolutely sovereign and that man has free will. And since man has free will, He has not usurped anything from God, but he's been gifted by God. Not only gifted, but along with the gifting has come responsibility that you and I are going to answer, then, for every idle word, for every action, of our life. We're responsible, not God. Don't blame your failures on God, and don't blame your successes on yourself--and let Him be all in all.

Deuteronomy says it this way--we're just going to take a quick look at this, but I want you to really grab a hold of this principle. Deuteronomy, chapter 30, verse 15, "See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil." We're living in a world that is under the power of the curse of sin. We're living in a world that's waiting its redemption, as we talked about it, physically. We're living in the midst of a people who are in the process of being sanctified that we might be glorified. We're living in a world where God is sovereign, and in His sovereignty, He has chosen to involve Himself in all things, for He is infinite, He is omniscient, He is omnipotent, and, therefore, nothing happens that He does not allow to happen. Nothing happens that He is not aware is going to happen. Everything that happens is worked for good to those that love God and are called according to His purpose, Romans 8:28 tells us. So what you don't understand at this moment in your life, trust that it's working for good. Amen? "I don't understand." You don't need to understand. You just need to know God and believe that all things work together for good to those that love God and are called according to His purposes.

He says, "[I've commanded you] this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in His ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it." Verse 17, "But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods [secular humanism], and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish..." We've talked about the fact that without God, fatalism is really the only reality, so you might as well-- The Scripture speaks that. You can try to promote any other type of philosophy you want, but listen: the Word of God is true, and without the knowledge of God, fatalism is what you have to believe, because the Scripture says if you don't know God, if you're not going to serve God, if you're not going to walk in obedience, then you might as well eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you die. Amen?

Those are the choices that we have. That's what we have to choose to believe. What are you choosing to believe about God's involvement in your life right now? You see, too many of us are choosing to believe that our flesh cannot be controlled. Too many of us are choosing to believe that the influence of the spirit of antichrist is absolutely irresistible, but it's not, as we're going to see in just a moment. God said, "...I have set before you life and death...therefore [What?] choose life..." (Deuteronomy 30:19). There is one determining factor for the course of your life. You see, God has generally established the redemption of man. God has delivered man from the power of sin, but you deliver yourself by believing God. It's the gift of God; it's the grace of God to believe. You can't believe by yourself; it's a gift. "By grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves. It is a [say it] gift of God. It's not of works" (Ephesians 2:8-9). It's not of self lest any man should boast, but you're involved in the process and you're the final determining factor. God has paid the price, God has given the grace, God has given the revelation, God has given the abiding of His Spirit, and you are where you are and you are what you are because that's what you choose to be.

Now, some of you might be saying, "That's not the good news I was looking for tonight." You see, God is no respecter of persons. He has given us all the same measure, the Scripture says. To every one of us, to every man, has been given the--not "a"--the measure of faith. What are you doing with what God's given you? "Well, you know, my genetic makeup, my personality, my circumstances..." No!--your choices. That's what got you where you are. We don't want to hear that because we're all "victims" in our society today. Now, we like to think that we're not influenced by that spirit out there, as the Church, but, beloved, the strength of this era that we're living in, where it's never our fault, we're all victims--we've got to deal with it.

The Scripture goes on to say here, He said if you are turned away from understanding the goodness of God, the purpose of God, to bring you into a land--now, put it into the spiritual realm. What is the Promised Land as it pertains to you and me? It's not heaven. It's the sanctified life; it's living the victorious Christian life. That's what this is all about. He said, "There's a land that I want you to walk into. You didn't build the houses; you didn't dig the wells"--Jesus did, but you can eat from it, praise God! What do you have to do? You just have to choose that this is what God wants for you. But be careful, He said, that in this time of prosperity, having partaken of the grace of God, known the forgiveness of sins, we don't think that somehow we have right to govern our own lives. We're unprofitable servants; we're here to work and live for the glory of God and not for ourselves. Our choices are to be to honor God, not promote ourselves, not to satisfy the lusts of our own members that are in every one of us. They don't burn any hotter in you than in anybody else. We're all sinners; we all have sin in our members. Every person in this room is a child of Adam, which means within your breast beats a heart of selfishness and pride, and every one of us is required to kill it daily. Why would you think you're the exception? Why should it be all God working in your situation and not in another's?

Listen to what He goes on to say: "I call heaven and earth [verse 19] to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore [say it with me again] choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live." Now, the choice that's before us--turn over to Philippians for just a second, and let's talk about this choosing and the ability to choose. Are we talking about works? Are we talking about trusting in our own ability and our own strength? Of course not. You're not able to do it--"In me, that is, in my flesh dwells no good thing" (Romans 7:18). "Without Him I can do [say it] nothing" (John 15:4). We're not talking about that. We're talking about choosing to let God finish the work in you. We're talking about choosing the mind of Christ.

Philippians in the second chapter tells us this. We look, and as we study concerning the ministry of the Lord, he says in chapter 2, verse 2, "Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind [Grab hold of that, because the thing that makes you make the wrong choices is haughtiness, pride, self-will, selfishness. How do we get to where we can make the right choices? By becoming the meek that inherit the earth. By lowliness of mind] let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus [the mind of a servant]." What choices are there, really, when we truly believe that we're here to do the will of God, to serve others and not ourselves? How difficult is it, really, when we believe it is more blessed to give than to receive? Do you believe that? "Yeah, I believe that." "Have you ever experienced that?" "Yeah, I've experienced that." And when you've done it and you're experiencing it, you know it's true. It is more blessed to give than to receive, praise God! But why isn't that always working and real? It all has to do with how we perceive ourselves and our worth and our ability to think and to make decisions and to trust in our own understanding.

"Let this mind be in you [verse 5], which was also in Christ Jesus: Who...made himself of no reputation..." Are the decisions you make based upon a false reputation that you've built? You think you deserve this, you think you know, you think you have the ability, you think you have the right. Jesus chose to be of no reputation. If we're going to make the right choices to honor God in our lives, to walk in the spirit, then we have to begin to esteem others better than ourselves. We have to look to the things of others. We have to take on the mind of the servant, making ourselves of no reputation, choosing to be the servant, verse 7 says, and humbling ourselves, verse 8, even to the obedience of our personal cross, our daily cross. Then, and only then, do you become a candidate for exaltation, but God exalts us. We can't exalt ourselves, ever! Humble yourself and in due time--say it--God will exalt you (1 Peter 5:6). Any exaltation that is not of God is sin. Anything you've accomplished in your own strength is sin. It's going to burn up. It's in opposition to God. Paul said, "The things I used to boast in I now count worthless. It's dung. It's refuse. I counted those things. I want to see it more for what it is, that I might win Christ," he goes on to tell us in this same epistle.

Now, the thing that I want us to grab hold of tonight, and I don't want to get bogged down in this part, is to realize that every one of us has been graced with the same ability. Verse 13, "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do his good pleasure." If you're not doing God's will, then it's because you choose not to, not because you lack the ability. You don't lack the revelation. We sure don't lack the opportunity to serve and to become salt and light and esteem others better than ourselves, as the passage said, to live our lives looking beyond ourselves so that we can experience the blessing of giving and not receiving. "I've set before you today the opportunity to really know life." Why are so many choosing the death of selfishness, self-involvement, this agenda that we talk about so often?

Now, let me show you something. Keep your finger here in Philippians, and go over to the epistles of Peter for just a moment. In 2 Peter, the first chapter, look at verse 3, "According as his divine power hath given unto us all things [has given to us--me--all things necessary to] life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: [Through this knowledge and revelation] are given unto us [he goes on to say] exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature..." The divine nature of love: this ability to esteem others better than ourselves, this servant's heart that chapter 2 in Philippians shows us that Jesus had.

Now, the thing that I'm wanting you to see is, it's not--and this is where we get into trouble--it's not of yourself. "I've got to love other people!" No, you can't do that; it's impossible. In me, that is in my flesh, dwells no good thing. Without Him I can do nothing. What we need to understand, beloved, is that if Christ is living in us, if it's no longer we that live but Christ that lives in us, if the life that we now live we live by the faith of the Son of God Who loved us and gave Himself for us, then it's working! It's already working. We're not trying to get it. We're not trying to look for some extra power that will enable me now to love. It's working in you; it's wanting to get out! You're keeping it from working by your choices. Many of us think we're having to try to walk in the spirit, we have to try to do good, and good is in you. You're suppressing it by your choices.

Which choices, then, would we be talking about? Well, listen to what the Scripture says: "Men ought always to pray and not to faint" (Luke 18:1). "When you pray" and "when you fast"--not "if." "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Now, something's implied in all of those statements: you. You do it. You choose. You pray. You fast. "You walk in the spirit" (Galatians 5:16, 25). "You study to show yourself approved unto God; a workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15). "You give and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, shall men give into your bosom" (Luke 6:38). "You seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all of these other things will be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33). "You lean not to your own understanding, but in all of your ways acknowledge God; and He will direct your path" (Proverbs 3:5).

Lives becoming habitually set on course to do what we know to do and to realize that everything in us--the deck is stacked for you to be victorious! And the devil has convinced us just the opposite: that the deck is stacked against us and that our flesh is so powerful and so dominant, and there's no way that I can control that. "I've tried so many times, and I've tried to stop coveting for a bigger home and a nicer car." "I've tried to stop lusting after the women that I see." "I've tried to stop lusting after the food." "I've tried to--" Have you tried to glorify God that it's already been done? Have you tried to be thankful for the work that's taken place in you, the finished work of Jesus Christ? Have you declared it done? Have you--the Scripture says, reckoning you're dead indeed unto sin. Reckoning: acknowledging, declaring, who you are in Jesus Christ. You see, that's real positive confession. Many of us that have heard faith teaching and all this for years--and the principles work the same in prayer, a declaration. What happened is what we said twenty years ago was going to happen. We said what's going to happen is, people are going to take these principles of confession, and it's going to turn around just as a lust thing. It's going to turn around for the temporal instead of the eternal. Now, you do have it--the "blab it and grab it" mentality of so many of the faith people. All they can do is talk about what they're believing God to have instead of talking about who they are in Christ ("I am the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ," 2 Corinthians 5:21). These people, dear God, they'll talk about Cadillacs all day. How about talking about the righteousness? How about just going around and telling people all the time how good God is, sharing your testimony? "Yes, I used to be in bondage to that, but I'm not anymore, praise God. It's still in me. My flesh still wants it. I just (turn over to Romans 6) choose not to yield my members as instruments to sin." "Well, how can you do that? You can't just choose not to sin." That's the only way you can not sin!

"Don't you know (chapter 6, verse 6) that our old man is crucified with him, the body of sin has been destroyed, that we would henceforth no longer serve sin, and he that is dead is freed from sin?" Don't you understand? Verse 11, "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves [acknowledge, declare--that's what that word "reckon" means; put to the account] to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body..." Listen, verse 12, "Let not sin..." You let not sin! You choose to let not sin rule in your mortal body that you should obey it (choose it, choose lust)! "Neither yield ye [neither choose to offer up; don't allow any thoughts, decisions, to involve] your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves [choose to obey; give yourself by choice] unto God, as those that are alive from the dead..." "Know ye not, [verse 16] that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey [choose to serve], his servants ye are to whom ye [choose to] obey [serve]; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" You see, what's happening here is we're giving too much credibility to sin. Its power is destroyed! It's not the dominant force in your life! All things that pertain to life and godliness have been given to you! He's working in you to will and to do His good pleasure! What are we saying tonight? You're the bad guy.

Now, I guarantee you that anything you really want to do, you'll find a way to do it. Am I right or wrong? You may not accomplish it, but it won't be for lack of effort. Which gods are we really serving? Who is it that we're looking to honor? What are you doing to change your surroundings to liberate yourself to obey? What are you doing to clear your mind so that when you pray you can really commune with God? Don't just go through the efforts. Don't just go through the ritual of praying. You haven't prayed until you've encountered God. You haven't prayed until you've been affected by the presence of God. When you show up here Tuesday and put in thirty minutes and leave and your whole mind, your whole time here, is looking at your watch, thinking about what you're going to do when you go home, thinking about what's at the job, thinking about having to mow the lawn, thinking about having to go cook dinner, thinking about not wanting to be here, thinking about "I've almost got my prayer time in," and then multiply that by everything else we do daily--what have we done to choose to honor God, to obey, to fellowship, to yield our members as instruments to His righteousness, to present our bodies (Romans 12) as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable unto God? It's all a choice. It has to do with that value system that we were speaking of.

He goes on to say in Romans 6, verse 20, "For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. [Verse 22] But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life." Choices. Now, you see, the fine line, the distinction, between the humanist--the humanist would say that there is something innate within us, there is an innate goodness, that there is an innate intelligence. There is not. Anything that communes with an infinite God is a gift from Him. All of our intelligence, all of man's intelligence, is a fragment of the omniscience of God enabling us to have adequate access to apprehend redemption--not to build our own kingdom, not to establish ourselves as gods. Man's wisdom is foolishness with God, so why would you choose your understanding?

See, we're talking about coming to know Who God is. We're talking about fellowshipping with the infinite, eternal Father of Lights, trusting that He has the best for your life, choosing to not choose yourself. I don't want my will. I will not esteem myself worthy or able. Practically, see, it's all about treasures, isn't it? Let me see if I can simplify it. A goal: I want to wear size 30 pants. That's what I used to wear when I was in the sixth grade. So I look at these pants now. These are like 33s that I have. Somehow I've got to get three inches [off]. Now, I believe that I could get into a pair of 30 pants with a block and tackle, but if this is the goal, then I'm going to have to change some things in my life. When I go over to Red Robin like I did this afternoon with the girls for lunch, and they put that chocolate--oh, don't they have good chocolate milkshakes at Red Robin? If you're going to go somewhere after church, go over to Red Robin and get one of their chocolate milkshakes. They may have some left; I don't know, since we've been there.

Oh, we went to a place in Leesburg. Have any of you heard of Cold Stone Creamery? How many of you have not heard of that place? Oh, they're going to love me. Let me tell you something. This is the best ice cream shop I've ever been to. They call it Cold Stone because their counter is like this cold stone type thing, and the reason for it is this. You can order up anything you want--all the flavors, all the trimmings. I mean, they've got stuff sitting there--Kit Kat bars--that they'll put in there for you; anything you can imagine that you really should have is there, man. It's really kind of cool because you order--I think I ordered the medium. They got this thing, and they get these scoopers, the big scoopers, and they pull this thing. This is literal--they scooped up a scoop of ice cream about like that [Pastor held his hands up to indicate a huge scoop]. I love chocolate chip cookie dough, so they grabbed that baby [the ice cream], they slapped it on the cold stone thing there, and then they get their little shovels and they pull it all apart. Then they start putting chocolate chips in there (chocolate chip cookie dough is what I wanted). Then they get real cookie dough, man! They throw that baby on there, and then they get all this caramel and they're squirting it all in there, and then they chop it all up and stir it all up and they put it all in there, and you've got this big thing of chocolate chip cookie dough! And I'm trying to get [size] 30 pants on. There's like eight zillion calories in this thing. And I just had--have you ever eaten at the smoothie place down there? They have this health food that they want to ruin your drinks with. You go down there to get a smoothie, and they say, "Do you want whey in there?" "No, thank you. I weigh enough!" "Would you like us to put wheat germ in your milkshake?" Get out of here! They call it the Healthy Man; I call mine that I order the Happy Man. I get the Chocolate Chiller with peanut butter. Well, I'd already had one of those (I had one of those at noon). Now, this is at nine o'clock at night, and we're at Cold Stone. There is no way I'm passing that thing up, man! I ate the whole thing! And part of Greer's. Jimmy and Jeff wouldn't let me have any of theirs, so we were doing good.

Now, the point I'm making is this. I went through all of that just to--it's really good; go up there and get some of that stuff. Somewhere I have to choose between the Happy Man and the Cold Stone--you eat a lot of those and you're going to be laid out on a cold slab (anyway, it's worth it)--you have to make some choices. It's very simple, and that's life. You sit there and you go, Mega good ice cream--[size] 30 pants. What do you want the most? Yeah, me, too--the ice cream! Whenever this other thing becomes valuable enough to you, you'll push that away, and you'll say, "No, I'm not going to have that. I choose not to because I have a greater treasure."

Now, when honoring God, obeying the Word of God, serving others, becomes the real treasure of our life, then our decisions, our choices, follow. The specific decisions are consequences of the general decision to honor God, to die to self. That's made daily; that's made when you rise up in the morning. Start teaching yourself the first thing that comes to your mind when you rise up in the morning is, "I choose to die to myself today. I am not going to spend this day living for myself. Lord, give me an opportunity to esteem others, to honor You, to live Your Word, to declare Your Word, to experience Your Word." By reason of use, this life (your life pattern) begins to change. The individual choices--the chocolate chip cookie dough is going to win out every time until this goal, this ambition, this treasure, becomes the desire of your heart. You know, the return to the first love? The jealousy we had for Him when we first embraced eternal life; the commitments that we made to pour our lives out to Him, for Him.

Some of you probably aren't old enough to remember it, but I can remember as a young man, every time I'd sing that chorus, the tears flowing. The commitment of my heart, the desire of my heart, as I'd sing that old chorus years ago: "I'll go where You want me to go, dear Lord. I'll do what You want me to do. I'll be what You want me to be." Is that the treasure? Because choices follow value, what you've placed value upon. You will choose to protect or to acquire your treasure. The biblical illustration of that is the pearl of great price. Everything else, whatever's necessary to make the acquisition, will be done. Choose this day who you're going to serve. What do you want to do to cause your walk in the spirit to become a daily accessing the grace of God (the experiencing of all things that pertain to life and godliness; the allowing of Him working in us to will and to do of His good pleasure) to become a reality in your life? When does it happen? It happens tonight. It happens tonight by just making a choice. You say, "Yeah, but, man, I've made these choices, and they've never taken before. I've made choices to go on diets, and they've never worked. I've made choices..." Nobody's life is on a straight incline. We've all made those choices and not been one hundred percent successful, but He's praying that your faith won't fail you, praise God. He's given us all things that pertain to life and godliness, so I just want to encourage you: make the choice tonight to make the right choices tomorrow, and God will work in you to will and to do His good pleasure.

Father, we thank You for the Word of God. As we just rejoice in Your presence and we look at the practicality of this walk in the spirit, the real question that we have to answer tonight is not, Do I have the strength to make the right choice? but, Do I have the resolve to make the right choice? It's not in us to do; it's in us to choose, to place the value on Your glory, on Your lordship, to choose to die that You might be exalted, to choose to love as we've been loved, to choose to give as we have so freely received. Sin is in me, but it's no longer dominant, because I no longer recognize it as dominant! I've got a new treasure: not to serve my lust, but to honor You through obedience. Make it real, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Let's stand before the Lord. Hallelujah! Before you go, turn to somebody next to you and say, "Choose life." Praise God. Amen.

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