I want to begin today by telling you that we live in a very sensual society.
On a daily basis people make decisions thinking only of what will gratify their physical appetites.
So many of the choices that are made never look beyond the here and now.
We have raised a generation that has adopted the philosophy that if it feels good do it.
Many times over, life choices are made with the physical body rather than the intellectual mind.
There has been a massive watering down of our value system. We are facing a barrage from hell, trying to dumb down the minds of men and women by convincing them that what they do today, and the choices they make today have no effect on their tomorrow.
I am not a negative preacher, and I didn’t come to preach a negative message, but I would be a fool, and less than your friend if I tried to convince you that the decisions you make today do not affect your tomorrow. ( Read Numbers 14:18 )
There may be some here today who are feeling the effects of choices that others made.
I am not preaching that others are responsible for your salvation. Paul said in Phil. 2:12, that you must, "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling."
In Acts 2:40 Peter admonished the crowd that gathered on the day of Pentecost that it was their responsibility to, "save yourselves from this untoward generation."
I am not preaching that you can go through life with a victimized mentality, blaming others for everything wrong in your life. But what I am preaching to you today is, there is power in a choice.
What you do today might not affect you tomorrow. It might not affect you the next day. It may not happen next week,next month, or even next year, but somewher along the line, if sin is left unchecked, it is going to rear it’s ugly head and you are going to realize the power of a choice.
We read to you this morning about Lot. And the place where we find Lot is at a crossroad in his life. He is at a place of decision. Standing in the cross-hairs of choice.
Lot probably didn’t realize that the decision that he was about to make would, forever, change the course of his life.
Abraham looked at Lot and said if you go right, I’ll go left. If you go left, I’ll go right. Lot the choice is yours.
And allow me to pause here for a moment and tell you, that I beleive what Lot should have done, was repent for the strife between his men and Abrahams, and ask Abraham to allow him to stay. Abraham was in covenant with God, and no matter where Abraham went, God had promised to bless him.
Let me encourage someone today. You may have been through heartache. You may have seen strife. the natural tendency is to say that you are going to go your own way. But allow this pastor to compel you, under the anointing of the Holy Ghost, before you make any life altering decision, why don’t you stay with the church of promise? Why don’t you stay in the house where the blessing is?
But Lot began to look around. And when he looked, he liked what he saw. Lot fell in love with the world. It looked good to the eyes. It felt good to the flesh. Pride began to take over when he began to think about how good it would be to be on his own. And so he fell in love with the world. But I would like to remind you of the words of 1st John 2:15-17.....
Hear me today there is power in a choice!
Lot didn’t realize that with one decision he was going to seal the fate of his entire family.
You just go over a few chapters and read the outcome of Lot’s choice.
He had to leave daughters and sons in-law behind in Sodom and Gomora.
He lost a wife because she had grown so attached to sin that she had to turn around and have one more look.
The two daughters that he did escape with, had become so perverted by the society in which they had lived, that when the got to the mountain of their escape, they got their dad drunk, and had incestuous relationships with him. From those relationships were born two children. One named Moab, from which the moabites descended, and the other named Ben-ammi, from which the Ammonites descended. And the result was that the Ammonites and the Moabites were the enemies of Israel for years to come.
You see my friend, ther is power in a choice.
There was pleasure for a little while. It was great for a season. But when it came time to pay the piper the price was heavy.
I am preaching to some people today who have begun to realize that you have gone much farther than you ever anticipated.
There are some who have been gone much longer than you intended.
There are others here who have already had to start paying the price for your choice.
I’ll say it again, there is power in a choice.
But I am glad to be able to inform you today that tha is not how the story has to end.
You see, by reason of the fact that you are in this room today, it lets me know that it is still not too late to make a better choice.
We read about the sins of the fathers being visited upon the children, but let me tell you the good news.
The only way that sin can continue to have power over you is if you choose to remain guilty.
My friend, if you will make the right choice today, the curse of sin, and the curse of death, and the curse of hell can be forever broken.
Just like bad choices affect your family and your future, right choices do the same thing.
2 Peter 3:9
1 John 1:9
Rev. 22:17
Whether you realize it or not today, your actions in just the next few moments are going to determine your choice.
I’ve preached the Word, and I’ve set before you a choice today. ( Read Deuteronomy 30:19 )
I can’t speak for everyone else today, but my battle cry is found in Joshua 24:15, "But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."
There is power in a choice!
