DCC SHINE THE LIGHT SERVICE Choice - 7/14/10

Choice - 7/14/10

Thank you Cindy for choosing to ask me to speak tonight

Thank you to those choosing to be here for the service

I thank the Lord for those God put here in the park unknowingly to them by divine appointment.

Let's pray.

My choice for a life scripture is Deuteronomy 6:5

LOVE THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.

Love is a choice

My mother chose to love me and have me at the age of 16.

My father chose to stand up and be a dad at the age of 18 and they have been married the last 38 years.

My kids can't understand that you choose to love someone because the world has shown them that the uncontrollable emotion of lust is love.

When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.

Romans 5:6

For God so loved the world that He gave His beloved Son that everyone who believes will not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16

I chose Christ while I was still a sinner, utterly helpless one month pregnant in February 1991.

I chose Him to no longer be an acquaintance but I believed He loved me, gave His Son for me, and that in Him I could have eternal life.

I chose to love my then boyfriend, who God changed His heart in three months and we were married in and have been for 19years.

**Side note**this was not God's perfect plan and we and my parents suffered consequences for our actions but God loved us and saw us through, God's perfect plan is to abstain and wait for marriage, not that your marriage will be perfect but that you will have started in accordance to God's will.**

LOVE     

The word is God's love story to us:

God loved Adam created Eve they failed, suffered consequences , but God clothed them and still chose to love them.

God loved Noah spared his family the world suffered consequences for sin but God still chose to never flood the world again

God loved Abraham even though he lied to Pharaoh that Sarah was his sister not wife and still chose to make Him the father of nations

God loved Isaac even though he favored his elder un-anointed son Esau but God still chose to bless him with long life.

God loved Jacob even though he wrestled with God and was given a limp, God still chose to bless him with great wealth.

God loved Jacob's boys even though they sold their brother Joseph into slavery, God still chose to make them the twelve tribes of Israel.

God loved Joseph even though he meant to bring his family to Egypt in famine to provide for them they eventually became slaves, God chose to part the Red Sea to save them from captivity.

God loved the Israelites even though they complained in the desert wandering for 40years, God chose to still bring them to the Promise Land.

God loved David, king of Israel, even though he had Uriah killed to take his wife, God chose to forgive and still call him a man after God's heart.

God loved David's son Solomon even though he took 1000s of wives and concubines, God chose to bless him when he asked for wisdom.

God loved Israel even though they ignored his prophets, God chose to continue his plan of salvation by sending His Son.

God loved His Son even though He chose followers we would think shouldn't have measured up: doubting Thomas, the sons of thunder James and John, Peter who denied knowing Him three times, and Paul was a terrorist against Christians.

God loved women throughout the bible too that fell short according to our standards.

God loved Eve even though she offered Adam the fruit and listened to the snake, God still chose to have his Son come through a woman to one day crush the snakes head.

God loved Rebekah even though she helped Jacob lie to deceive Isaac, God still chose to allow Jacob's blessing.

God loved Bathsheba even though she had adultery with David, God still chose to allow her to be honored by Solomon and outlive David.

God chose to love Sarah even though she laughed when she overheard she would be pregnant at 90, God still chose to love her and allow her to bear Isaac.

God chose to love Rahab even though she was a harlot she hid the spies for God, God chose to spare her when all Jericho perished.

God chose to love Ruth even though she was from Moab not the chosen of Israel for her care she showed her mother in law, God chose to count her in the lineage of Jesus.

The list goes on and on to today.

We have all sinned,

None of us deserve, none of us can buy or none of us can earn God's gracious gift of eternal love

He chooses to love us and all that He asks is that we choose to love Him.

 

LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD

If you love the Lord as your God you have a relationship with Him.

You talk with him in your quiet times, in hard times, in desperate times, in times of plenty, in times of little.

He talks to You while you are reading His word, to you when you go to church, when you surround yourself with Christian believers who back you and hold you up.

The Lord is not your God if you only meet Him an hour on Sunday or even here, if you catch an occasional worship song in the car, if you drop the check in the basket to cross off your list.

He is your God when you are faced with a choice.

The choice of church or sleeping in, the choice of secular music or worship music, the choice of the check to tithe or the check for other wants.

WHAT ARE YOU CHOOSING?

Are you choosing God over friends that you shouldn't have, family that hinders your walk, jobs that consume the time you have with loved ones in your life?

Are you choosing to make the Lord your God or

are you content having Him as a casual acquaintance?

Is he the excuse for your choice "I am a child of God "

Or are you making excuses not to choose Him " I can go next week, I can give next time, I can this one time"

WE WERE CREATED WITH FREE WILL AND HE IS NOT OUR GOD UNLESS WE CHOOSE HIM TO BE

 

LOVE THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR HEART

Where is your heart?

What do you have that you hold so dear that if it were taken or destroyed you would physically, mentally, spiritually never be the same again?

I challenge you to search your heart for any such person, place or thing in your life that you hold that dear because that is where God is going to break you.

 

 

"WHAT?!" YOU SAY - WHY WOULD A LOVING GOD WANT TO BREAK MY HEART?

You chose him as your God, remember?

You can only have one God, He won't share your heart with anyone or anything. Exodus 34

So can we love?

Yes

we have the choice to love the Lord with all our heart

we have the choice to love all else with an open hand to enjoy while we have it

We have the choice to know that when we don't it's due to our loving God's hand choosing to bring us closer to Himself.

 

There is a story of the Bell Sheep

The shepherd watched his flock of sheep in the fields

The shepherd had one sheep that would always wander off.

The shepherd would leave his flock to find this one.

The shepherd tied a bell to the sheep to help in finding him

The shepherd searched and searched one day and heard him in the bottom of a ditch

The shepherd climbed down and brought him back to solid ground.

But it was time for change the shepherd had a choice to make.

The shepherd bent down and broke the sheep's leg.

The sheep scrambled in fear and pain.

The sheep failed to notice the shepherd bandaging his leg.

The sheep cried as it was lifted to the shepherd's shoulders.

The sheep wanted for nothing in its weeks of healing as the shepherd cared for him.

The sheep healed and one day it came for him to stand

But it was time for change the sheep had a choice to make.

The sheep followed the shepherd because in his brokenness he knew the love of the Shepherd

 

My brother until recently had my heart.

I had made a promise, before I was saved when I was 14 and he was 4, that I would always do all I could to love and care for him no matter what.

My husband helped me support that promise and God allowed it.

My kids grew up with him like an older brother and God allowed it .

In an instant God reached down and broke that relationship.

I was physically depressed.

I was mentally distraught.

I was spiritually drained.

I chose God as he bandaged my heart by sharing my one on one time with others.

I cried but I found that as I poured out to others the healing God was giving me was reaching others also.

What started as less than 10 texts to family and friends has grown to

47 daily text messages

33 daily emails

145 daily Facebook hits on friends walls

1111 daily Facebook hits on a Prayer wall that's connected me with believers all over the world and in other languages.

This study has brought me to the day of healing that I can stand and say I am closer than I have ever been to God because I chose him after he broke me to show how much he truly loves me.

 

LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL

What's your soul?

You can't see it, hear it, feel it, taste it, touch it, buy it at Wal-Mart, on Overstock.com

STOP

TAKE 10 SECONDS AND LOOK AROUND - TRY TO SEE EACH AND EVRY INDIVIDUAL PERSON IN YOUR RANGE OF SIGHT

Every person you see represents a soul

Each soul is eternal and will live eternally somewhere

STOP

FEEL YOUR PULSE - TAKE A DEEP BREATH

If you are still here you have not accomplished God's purpose for your life

If you are not here you have accomplished God's purpose for your life.

"NOW WAIT A MINUTE" YOU MAY SAY

She was a young mom, she suffered so long, he was taken so suddenly, he was so young, the baby was unborn. What about tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, terrorists, famine, disease?

Millions are not here due to these situations how does it accomplish God's purpose for a loving God to allow such atrocities?

Every person not here had an impact on someone's life to make a choice for their soul to remember how short life here is and how eternal life after here will be

STOP -AFTER THIS MOMENT EVERYONE WITHIN THE HEARING AND UNDERSTANDING OF MY VOICE WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO STAND BEFORE THEIR FATHER GOD AND SAY THEY DIDN'T KNOW

How can you love the Lord your God with all your soul?

Admit - Jesus is the Christ the Son of God

Believe - Jesus lived, died and rose again to save you from your sin

Confess - you are sinner saved by grace you choose Him as your Savior.

This is the soul that lives eternally in the presence of God.

How can you reject the Lord your God with all your soul?

Deny Jesus is the Christ the Son of God, deny that He can save you, deny that you are a sinner, deny that you need to be saved

This is a soul that dies eternally out of the presence of God.

The choice for your soul is yours.

IF YOU DIDN'T KNOW NOW YOU KNOW

LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART WITH ALL YOUR SOUL WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH

We are not all at the same place in our walks with the Lord

Some have just came to the Lord, some have walked a long time, some may have fallen away, some struggle with each step.

I choose to use my strength to flood my world with the word

Scripture is anywhere I spend more than a minute

Where do you spend your minutes?

Could you choose to spend the strength to send a text of encouragement, make a call of care, write a letter of love, send a message of more than gossip but gospel truth on Facebook or my space, fill an email with your faith in God impacting your life instead of filling it with forwards.

You personally sharing your strength in love filled with the word of God will not come back void. Isaiah 55:11

Hand out Who I am

Sharon challenged us to spend a week claiming who we were in Christ and it changed my life.

As we close, with the music playing, can we stand, if you fill led raise your hands, claim who you are in Christ. If as we read you realize you need to become choose Christ you can step over to the tent to be prayed for don't leave here without choosing to live eternally in Christ.