Trust God – Choose Life
The starting quarterback for a college football team was injured during a game. The second string quarterback had not suited up because he had the flu. That left only a freshman, who was also the punter, but he had no experience on the college level. The coach had no choice but to put him in. It was second down, and the ball was on their own three yard line. The main concern of the coach was to get away from the goal line so they would have room to punt out of danger. The coach said, “Son, I want you to hand off to our fullback for the next two plays, let him run up the middle of the line to get us a few yards. Then I want you to punt.” The young quarterback did just as he was told. On the first play, he handed off to the fullback, who miraculously found a hole in the line and broke away for fifty yards. The young man called the same play and the hole was there again. This time, the fullback gained forty five yards. The fans were going crazy. The ball was on the two yard line. Confidently, the team lined up quickly. The young quarterback took the snap, stepped back, and punted the football into the stands. As the team came off the field, the coach angrily grabbed him and shouted, “What in the world were you thinking about on that last play?” He answered, “I was thinking what a dumb coach we have!”
He did what he was told. Very few quarterbacks are allowed to call their own plays. They don’t get to make that choice. Plays are sent in from the bench. Our purpose this morning is not to discuss football, but rather to talk about choices. When God created man, He gave him the ability to make his own decisions. One of the characteristics of the image of God was the ability to choose. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had everything they needed to sustain them in the loving relationship with God in which they existed. But in the middle of the Garden there was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God warned them to stay away from the fruit of that tree. So they had a choice to make. They could follow the instructions of God and live forever in paradise, or they could eat the forbidden fruit and die.
You might think that an absurd choice. Who would choose death over life? But that is what they did. And as a result of the choice made by Adam and Eve, not only were they filled with sin, but they passed it on to all successive generations. Because of this sin, you are no longer able to choose God on your own. Your sin separates you from your heavenly Father, and you are unable to go back to Him without assistance. You still have a freedom of choice in the matters of what you do in this world, but your ability to choose God was lost in the Fall into sin.
Are we any wiser in the choices we make? People today continue to choose death over life while maintaining their “freedom of choice” as a right. The choices people make bring harm to themselves and others.
- Consider the man who insists that he doesn’t have to wear a helmet when he rides a motorcycle. “It’s my life,” he will say. Yet if he is seriously injured, the public usually ends up footing the bill.
- Medicine can bring healing, but many choose to overuse and abuse drugs, which brings harm and eventually death.
- There are those who consciously choose to end their lives, committing suicide.
- And then there are those who maintain their right to choose in the matter of abortion. They say, “It’s my life!” while ignoring that God-given life growing inside of them.
Who would choose death over life? Millions of people do every day.
Today’s Old Testament reading encourages us to “Choose life!” instead of death. This passage is not about abortion. It is about God’s people making good choices and the basis for those choices. The basis for the choices we make should be who has chosen us—Chosen People Choose Life. You and I have been chosen by God.
God speaks in Deuteronomy to His chosen people, people He rescued from the slavery of Egypt, people about to enter the Promised Land. Why did He choose these people that He so often refers to as “stiff necked”?
“It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 7:7-8).
The covenant God made with these people was one sided. It was not, “You do this for Me and I’ll do for this you.” It was, “I’ve done this! I’ve chosen you and you had nothing to do with it.” They were not chosen because they were special people. They were special people because they were chosen. It is the same with God’s New Testament people. You heard in the second reading:
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).
You are God’s chosen people today, people He has rescued from the slavery of sin, people on your way to the Promised Land of heaven. Each one of you is special because you were chosen. You are, then, to live your lives in the context of being chosen. You make your choices in the context of being chosen. At least that is what should govern the choices you make. But we all make way too many choices in our lives forgetting that we are God’s chosen people. Another way of saying this is that we chose to turn to other gods rather than trusting in the one who has chosen us to be His own. God warns:
But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed.
In case you didn’t pick up on that, that is not a good thing. When you chase after other gods, when you do not let God be in control of your life, you are choosing death instead of life. And let’s consider the choice of death that is made far too often.
- People choose death through abortion to rescue them from a crisis pregnancy.
- People choose death through the destruction of human embryos to rescue them from disease.
- People choose death through assisted suicide to rescue them from pain and suffering.
In effect, they are choosing death instead of life. This affects the unborn child, the mother, the father, the grandparents and siblings and society. It is estimated that over 32,000 people are negatively affected by an abortion decision every single day in our country. And many of those making these wrong choices are Christians, people who know they have been chosen by God to be His own. Chances are that many of you here today have been impacted by an abortion decision. I have. So I want to address those who may feel this burden in their lives.
A woman who had an abortion asked her pastor, “How come abortion is the only sin that gets its own Sunday?” Although this is “Life Sunday” and not “The Sin of Abortion Sunday,” her point is well taken. It reminds us that it is not the sin of abortion that separates us from God. Sin separates us from God. We all stand equally guilty before Him. However, because of its nature, abortion can be more difficult to deal with than some other sins. That’s why I want to make sure that if you are burdened with this particular sin, I want you to know you are welcome here with all the rest of us sinners. You are welcome as one chosen in Christ Jesus. You are welcome as one cleansed by His blood.
Choosing death does not solve your problems. There has never been a choice of death that rescues us from our problems and leads to life. I take that back. There was that one time!
“Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” (Hebrews 2:14-15).
Jesus chose death “so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone” (Hebrews 2:9b). Jesus chose suffering and death to pay the price we owed God because of our sin. Jesus chose death to destroy it once and for all through His resurrection from the dead. Jesus chose death and “brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel” (2 Timothy 1:10b). Jesus chose death to rescue us. We never have to! Jesus chose death and He has chosen you and you have been baptized into His death and into His resurrection. Jesus chose death so that you could have life.
It is precisely because we are God’s chosen people that we need to be talking about abortion and the other life issues in our churches. It’s more than just “speaking against” something going on “out there.” It is “speaking for” those “in here” who face these issues and are being tempted to choose death. You need to be reminded that no matter how difficult the circumstances, no matter what our fears, no matter what sufferings you may have to endure—you are chosen! You belong to God. You are His children. You can trust Him. You can choose life. You can choose to uphold the value He gives to life and to defend the life of the vulnerable. You can choose life and care for those among us who are weary and burdened. You can choose life and share the forgiveness of Christ with one another when mistakes are made.
“Choose Life!” is a phrase can stir things up. What I pray it will stir up in you is your faith and trust in God. You can make good, God-pleasing choices because you are chosen by God in Christ.
