Choose Life or Death

Deuteronomy 30:15–20; Today’s Psalm (#One); Philemon 1; Luke 14:25–33

The Collect of the Day gave us the theme that runs through ALL of our scriptures today

We have a choice to make: whether to follow God’s ways – even when there are temptations not to – or whether we will depart from God.

Lord God, grant your people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and with pure hearts and minds to follow you, the only God: through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

None of us would outright choose evil over good when the difference is obvious (beat up a little old lady or help her cross the street). But the temptations we face are rarely that easy.

We are tempted by the world, our own flesh, and the devil.

Deuteronomy 30:15–20 (ESV)

Moses teaches the people before they go into the Promised Land, reminding them of everything God has taught them over the past 40 years.

¹⁵ “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil.

¹⁶ If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.

¹⁷ “But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, ¹⁸ I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess.

¹⁹ “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live,

²⁰ loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days….”

People, cultures, and empires FALL because they’re FOOLED.

Psalm 1 (ESV)

¹ Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers

² but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.

³ He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.

⁴ The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

(A video of separating grain from chaff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_gfgxkZryM)

Our next reading is Paul’s letter to a man named Philemon

Philemon 1–25 (ESV)

¹⁰ I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment.

¹² I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart.

The point for today is Philemon has a choice to make:

Either to take revenge on Onesimus and show him who’s boss, or to receive him as a brother in Christ.

The world has an opinion,

your flesh has an opinion,

the Enemy of our souls has an opinion.

But what will YOU do? Which way will YOU choose?

Do you want to follow Jesus? Or play church?

Jesus gives a tough choice to anyone who wants to follow him

 Luke 14:25–33 (ESV)

²⁵ Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them,

²⁶ “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

Consider Neapolitan Ice Cream:

·       In biblical Hebrew, to express preference, that you like chocolate more than vanilla, which you like more than strawberry, one would have to say:

I love chocolate, and I hate vanilla

I love vanilla and hate strawberry

And I love strawberry

²⁶ “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

• This expresses preference of Jesus when there’s conflict. Jesus asks us to prefer Him above all things.

Here’s the cost you have to pay to follow Jesus:

³³ So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”

You have to count the cost to put all things as secondary to following Jesus. It’s your choice.

From ACNA’s Baptism Service:

Question Do you renounce the devil and all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God?

Answer I renounce them.

Question Do you renounce the empty promises and deadly deceits of this world that corrupt and destroy the creatures of God?

Answer I renounce them.

Question Do you renounce the sinful desires of the flesh that draw you from the love of God?

Answer I renounce them.

The Celebrant prays over the Candidate(s) and may anoint each Candidate with the Oil of Exorcism, saying 

Almighty God deliver you from the powers of darkness and evil, and lead you into the light and obedience of the kingdom of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Question Do you turn to Jesus Christ and confess him as your Lord and Savior?

Answer I do.

Question Do you joyfully receive the Christian Faith, as revealed in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments?

Answer I do.

Question Will you obediently keep God’s holy will and commandments, and walk in them all the days of your life?

Answer I will, the Lord being my helper.