God’s
Menu
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Intro: How many of you like
to eat out? What is your favorite
restaurant? How many of you when you go there already know what you are going
to order? How many of you have to look at the menu several times before you can
make a choice?
I. The Choices
God also has a menu. It is a really short menu. It only has two
options.
·
Deut.
30:15 See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;
God has always kept His menu simple.
From the Garden of Eden, God’s list of options for Adam and Eve was
very short.
All throughout the Bible, we are repeatedly told of the fact that we have
only two options:
|
CHOICE
1
|
CHOICE
2
|
|
Life
|
Death
|
|
Good
|
Evil
|
|
Child of God
|
Child of Satan
|
|
Saved
|
Lost
|
|
Light
|
Darkness
|
|
Sheep
|
Goat
|
|
Blessings
|
Cursings
|
|
Everlasting life
|
Everlasting death
|
|
Sight
|
Blind
|
|
Friend of God
|
Enemy of God
|
|
Narrow gate
|
Wide gate
|
|
Heaven
|
Hell
|
God’s menu is a short menu.
II. The Choosing
Just like ordering your meal in a restaurant, you have the freedom to
choose what you want.
That is what separates humans from animals – the ability to choose.
The Theological word for it is “volition”.
God didn’t give the animals in the Garden of Eden a command or a menu
of options.
He gave that to mankind.
The fact that you have the ability to choose is what makes you so
special to God.
A. You Can Choose
Life and Good
Nobody is forcing you – nobody is robbing you of that choice.
Now grant it, people try to influence.
God is doing everything He can to try and influence you to make the
right choice.
19 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:
B. You Can
Choose Death and Evil
Many of the people in the Bible knew their options, and after looking
over the menu, they chose death.
They refused to listen to God’s warnings.
They refused to listen to God’s commands.
III. The Consequences
A. The Consequences of the Right Choice
ILLUSTRATION: Is there
anyone here that has ever got their food from the waiter, and tasted of their
food and was SO GLAD that they ordered that?
Have any of you ever tried to get your friend or your family members to
taste of your food because it was so good?
King David said it like this:
·
Psalms
34:8 O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth
in him.
B. The
Consequences of the Wrong Choice
ILLUSTRATION: How
many of you have ever ordered something you didn’t like?
How many of you have ever ordered something off of the menu, and when
you got it, it didn’t look anything like the picture on the menu?
How many of you have ever got your food from the waitress, took one
bite, and decided that you had ordered the WRONG THING!!
They refused to listen to all those around them that begged them to
choose right and choose life.
·
Proverbs
1: 24 Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand,
and no man regarded;
·
25 But ye
have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:
·
26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will
mock when your fear cometh;
·
27 When your fear cometh as desolation, and your
destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.
·
28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not
answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:
·
29 For that they hated knowledge, and did not
choose the fear of the LORD:
·
30 They would none of my counsel: they despised
all my reproof.
·
31 Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of
their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
WARNING!! – There is no
putting that plate aside and ordering another plate. Once you’ve made that
choice, and if you die having made the wrong choice, it’s over!
The best thing you can do is choose wisely before it’s too late!
