Choosing God's Path: The Power of Our Decisions

God has a plan and a purpose for your life but you can miss it it is not automatic friends most people are missing the purpose of their life God is not going to force himself on you God is not going to force you to enjoy the plan he created you for he gives you the choice to accept or reject his will he gives you the choice to obey or disobey his directions he gives you the choice to follow or ignore the purpose that you were created for and most people honestly miss the purpose of their life because of their poor choices. [00:00:11]

Today I'm giving you a choice you can choose life and success or you can choose death and disaster I am commanding you God is and he says I'm commanding you to do three things to love the Lord your God to live the way he has told you and to obey his laws and teaching those are choices you you can choose to accept or reject he says now you're about to cross the Jordan River and take the land that he is giving you if you obey him you will live and you will become successful and powerful. [00:01:51]

One of the greatest gifts that God has given you is the ability to choose you are not a puppet God could have made us all like marionet where he pulls all the strings and we pray five times a day we always do the right thing and if he had made us without a choice guess what there'd be no evil in the world but he gave us the freedom to to choose that is your greatest blessing and it is your greatest responsibility and if you choose wrongly it's your greatest curse. [00:04:19]

What happens to you in life I'm sorry for all the bad things that happened to you because we're in a broken Planet you don't always choose right other people don't choose right we all get hurt but what happens to you in life is not nearly as important as the way you choose to respond to it your choices are far more important in shaping your life than your circumstances you cannot control the circumstances in your life but you can control your choices and you can't control how you respond to it. [00:05:28]

Moses refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter he chose to be mistreated with the people of God that's to be a slave he regarded uh you know the sake of Christ greater value than the treasures of Egypt and he persevered that's the fourth choice that he did now I want to look at these uh in detail because these are the exact same four choices you have to make if you want your future to be different than it is right now. [00:11:01]

Moses is having an identity crisis and every teenager has an identity crisis and every young adult has an identity crisis and a lot of people through life have an identity crisis and Moses is born a Hebrew slave but he's raised as Egyptian royalty the son of Pharaoh's daughter he's raised as the grandson of the most P powerful person in the world he's actually a slave but he's raised as Egyptian royalty and so at some point Point Moses has to decide who Am I who am I and that's going that decision is going to affect the rest of his life. [00:12:30]

Moses refused to live a lie this is called Integrity the B the word there refused and M actually means to to reflect on and disown means I think about it and go uhuh not for me that what it means to refuse he insisted on being what God made him to be now let me ask a very important question who are you letting determine your identity Moses refused to live a lie now here's what the Bible says Romans 12:2 don't let the world around you squeeze you into its mold but let God remold your mind from within. [00:13:34]

Moses chose to be mistreated that's short-term pain along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time in this story of Moses verse 23 God chooses Moses but in verse 25 Moses had to choose God have you done that in verse 24 we see Moses refusing that's the identity and in verse 25 we see Moses choosing the negative is always followed by positive okay let me ask you a very important question where do you need to accept responsibility. [00:15:53]

You're free to choose and you can choose good or bad right or wrong success or failure you you're free to choose anything but you are not free from the circumstances of your choices the consequences I am free to make any choice I want to in my life what I eat what I drink who I hang out with what I do how I use my time but I am not free from the consequences and the moment I make those choices certain consequences go into H action and if I make bad choices in any area of my life then I'm going to reap those bad choices. [00:18:38]

Moses regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ in other words I'm going to be put down as a slave as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt all of the possessions and the wealth of the world were centered in Egypt at this time and he's going to inherit it all and he says you know what it's more important for me to be with God's people in their pain than it is for me to be with the devil's people in their pleasure it says Moses regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as greater value than Treasure of Egypt because he was looking ahead to his reward. [00:22:40]

Moses had every reason to be scared to death he had every reason to be to be afraid he's going up against the most powerful man in the world pharaoh at the height of the Egyptian Empire the most powerful man on the planet in Egypt Pharaoh is considered a God you're going up against a God and and and the truth is Pharaoh in Egypt he could command you to do anything and you had to do it I command you to cut off your right hand you had to cut it off Moses looks at pharaoh and goes I report to a higher authority. [00:28:46]

Here's the key the key to Faith is not just faith in anything because you can put Faith in all kinds of bad stuff and not be where you need to be in 10 years you got to put your faith in the right thing you got to put your faith in God. [00:29:36]