Making Right Choices Series

From The Problem to the Solution

#2 - MAKING THE RIGHT CHOICES

Last week, we began a series of messages entitled, "From the Problem to the Solution" and what we’re going to be doing is looking at over the next several weeks how we get FROM THE PROBLEM TO THE SOLUTION

Now, I asked you last week – how many of you have problems?

And last week, we talked about the reason for all of life’s problems, and they were because of the…

--world we live

--choices we make

--enemy we face

--people we know

--progress we gain

--God we serve

In other words, your problem today stems from one of these reasons

And I told you that no matter what you’re problem is, God wants you to go FROM THE PROBLEM TO THE SOLUTION

He dosen’t want you to constantly live in problems, but He is the God…

--that makes a way where there is no way

--that makes up for the years that the canker worm hath eaten

--that though you may be crucified on Friday, Sunday is coming

He is the God that dosen’t want to leave you in the problem, but wants to take you FROM THE PROBLEM TO THE SOLUTION

And we told you that the very first step in moving from the problem to the solution was to first of all ACKNOWLEDGE THE PROBLEM

Now, this is not always easy, because sometimes we are…

--clueless

--denial

--surrounded by people how don’t want to confront us

But the very first step is that we’ve got to say, LOOK, I’VE GOT A PROBLEM

Now, this morning, we’re going to be looking at the second step in how to get from the problem to the solution, and that has to do with the choices we make

So with that in mind, let’s read…

Deuteronomy 30:19 (KJV) "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:"

INTRODUCTION

Now, I’m not a big Country music fan…but sometimes, they have the most unique way of presenting life’s problems

For example, here’s some actual titles and lyrics…

--"You Can’t Roller Skate In A Buffalo Herd"

--"Thank God And Greyhound She’s Gone "

--"How Can I Miss You If You Won’t Go Away?"

--"Fell In A Pile Of You And Got Love All Over Me"

--" Keep Forgettin’ I Forgot About You "

--"If Love Were Oil, I’d Be A Quart Low "

--"If The Phone Don’t Ring, Baby, You’ll Know It’s Me "

You just know that there’s a PROBLEM behind everyone of those song titles

There’s another great country song title with a problem behind it, and it was written by George Jones

We all know about George Jones – he was the king in those – "cheat’n & drink’n" songs

And the fact that George Jones had a drinking problem was no secret

But on March 6, 1999 country music fans were horrified to hear that Jones was critically injured when he crashed his Lexus into a bridge in Nashville

The investigation showed that George had been drunk at the wheel

Thankfully he recovered, and two months later his new album called "Cold Hard Truth" came out and on it was a hit song titled "Choices", and ironically the hook line says, "I’m Living And Dying With The Choices I Made".

And you know, that’s the truth of the matter – we are living and dying with the choices we make

And that’s what our text says this morning

Deuteronomy 30:19 (KJV) "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:"

In other words, this text says basically that we will be LIVING AND DYING WITH THE CHOICES WE MAKE

And if we want to go FROM THE PROBLEM TO THE SOLUTION, we’ve got to look at the choices we make and examine and learn how to make the right choices

Now, there are three things I want to share with you about choices this morning…

First of all, let’s consider…

1. THE PROVISION OF THE ABILITY TO CHOOSE

In our text, we find one thing absolutely certain, and that is that God has provided us with a powerful thing – and that is CHOICE

Now, there are different kinds of choices

There are MICRO DECISIONS that concern our day to day living

In my research I came across this bit of information. Dr. Eric Klinger did a study at the University of Minnesota and he determined that all of us face somewhere between 300 and 17,000 decisions every day. Imagine! Seventeen thousand decisions!