Title: Let's live by making the right choice
Contents
Let's live by making the right choice.
Genesis 13:1-13
Today, I will testify to the word of God under the title “Let’s live by making the right choices”. When Albert Einstein was dying, a man asked him. “If you were born again, would you choose your profession again?” Perhaps the person who asked this question would say, "Yes," Einstein said. Even if I were to be reborn, I would still be a physicist.” It seems you wanted to hear the answer. At that time, Einstein's answer was completely unexpected.
“I'm sorry, but I disagree with your speculation. If I were given another life, I would like to be a laborer, not a physicist. Because I want to take time to explore myself. I've already wasted one life.
“No, have you wasted your life? Have you not made a significant contribution to the scientific development of mankind?” Then Einstein replied: “So what are the results? Hiroshima and Nagasaki are the result. I have dedicated my life to discovering the atomic energy that is the basis of matter and I feel guilty about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Many people have died because of me. If I had put the same passion I had devoted to discovering atomic energy into discovering myself, I would have been able to help millions of people mature and have beautiful experiences.”
In this conversation, Einstein shows how important the choice is by regretting his wrong choice. And that regret must also contain the desire to become a person who can make the right choice moment by moment so that we will not regret the day we stand before God for those of us who are living today.
Our reading today shows the importance of choices. Life is a choice. Choosing moment by moment becomes my life, my past, my present, and my future.
From small things to very big things, we constantly choose and live in the environment we are given. And what we must remember and keep in our hearts in this choice is the fact that the choice is freedom, but the responsibility that remains as a result of that choice must be borne for the rest of my life.
Adam and Eve, who once lived in the Garden of Eden, were living in a paradise where they had nothing to envy. But Eve was tempted by the serpent. He was tempted by the temptation that if he ate this tree, he would be in the position of the absolute who can distinguish good and evil like God, he forgot his existence as a creature and chose to eat the fruit. First, Eve ate it. And he tempted Adam to eat the fruit, and in response to that temptation, Adam also chose to eat the fruit.
Everyone! Who were Adam and Eve? A person who lived a life with God. We were created as beings in the image of God. A creature that cannot exist without God. They knew this too. But at the crucial moment of choice that will determine their future, they do not think of God. They did not think of God because they made a choice that gave their hearts to the temptation that ignited their greed. So Genesis 3:6 denounces their choice as follows:
“When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasing to the eye, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate, and gave it to her husband with her, and he also ate.” Who is the subject of choice? Woman Eve. In her view, she chose only the reality in which the fruit of the tree of good and evil was good for food, pleasing to the eye, and coveted enough to make one wise.
What is the price for these choices? It was the expulsion from the kingdom of God due to the judgment of God. This is Genesis 3:17-19.
“God said to Adam, ‘Because you have listened to your wife and ate from the tree I told you not to eat, cursed is the land because of you, and you will toil all the days of your life to eat of it. The earth will bring you thorns and thistles. Your food shall be the vegetables of the field; in the sweat of your face you will eat food, and eventually you will return to the dust, for in it you were drunk. You are dust, and to dust you will return.”
Because of a momentary wrong choice, a happy life turned into an unhappy life, and an eternal, finite being, God's children, turned into slaves to sin.
This Adam and Eve story shows us what our selection criteria should be. It shows us whether to choose only by looking at the visible reality, the profits that are right in front of our eyes, or whether to choose the will of God that is with us even though we cannot see it right now. And it shows you which choice is truly the right choice and one you will not regret, and it shows the truth that the result of that choice ultimately determines your own misfortune and happiness.
Today's text is the story of Lot's choice. Lot, who left his hometown with his uncle Abraham, made the right choice to follow Abraham. When Abraham heard the word of God and left the mainland, his many relatives, and his beloved parents and brothers, and set off for an unknown world, only Lot chose to follow his uncle Abraham.
This choice would not have been easy. Perhaps it would have been better mentally and environmentally if he had just stayed in his hometown, apparently. So, Lot's choice was really difficult. At the moment of making this choice, Abraham and Lot lost more than their visible reality gained. I lost relatives I knew. I lost my parents and siblings. All they got was the promise of blessing. However, they risked their whole existence and obeyed the word and left their hometown.
But after a while, Abraham and Lot each received God's blessing and became rich. Both had plenty of livestock and gold and silver. Abraham had many sheep and cattle, and Lot had many sheep and cattle. But a problem arose. A fight broke out between Abraham's sheep and cattle herds and Lot's sheep and cattle shepherds. Since there was not enough grass and water to feed the sheep and cattle, they had a fight to feed their livestock first. Because of this fight, Abraham tells Lot:
“Abraham said to Lot, We are one flesh. Neither me nor you nor my shepherd nor your shepherd should quarrel with each other. Isn't the whole earth before you? leave me If you go left, I will go right; if you go right, I will go left.”
Everyone! This was the period of important choices in life for Lot. Lot chose God in the first choice, but now that he has a lot of money and a good life, he has forgotten God.
Genesis 13:10-13 testifies of the situation at that time. “At that time Lot lifted up his eyes and looked at the Jordan, and there was plenty of water in all the land as far as Zoar, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, it was like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt. So Lot took all the Jordan and moved it to the east, and they departed from one another. Abraham dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain, and moved his tents as far as Sodom. The men of Sodom were wicked, and they were great sinners before the LORD.”
Lot made the right first choice. Lot remembered God at the moment of choice. But now, at the moment when he had to make a second choice, Lot left God. You did not choose God. He chose according to the sight of the flesh. I chose it because I saw the abundance of water and abundant resources, thinking only that I needed plenty of water and grass to have livestock.
This choice had nothing to do with God's will. It was only a choice based on human thoughts and one's own desires. Now I only thought of the wealth that would increase tremendously in the future, but I did not see the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah there.
What will be Lot's life as a result? Lot, who lived in the city of Sodom, which was in the field because the Jordans looked good, once had a great fortune. He had many livestock and servants. However, when the sinful city of Sodom was judged by God and burned down with brimstone fire, he could not save any of his wealth. Not one cow, not a sheep, not even a lamb was rescued, and he lost his beloved wife. Led by an angel, only herself and her two daughters survived. It was also because God still loved Lot. In fact, when he saw Abraham, he had compassion on Lot and forced him to drag him out, barely saving his life.
Everyone! Lot's choice, obviously, was his own. However, because God was not there, his life was thrown into a great crisis.
Saints, there will always be times when you will have to make important choices. However, most people set the standard only for what is in front of them, like Lot in today's text, and something that I can hold in my hands right away. However, such a choice would eventually be the same as Lot's choice between Sodom and Gomorrah. Because I did not think about God first, and did not think about the purpose of God sending me into this world, it would rather lead to destruction.
Everyone! Our Lord Jesus, as the Son of God, was a person who could walk the easy path and the good path. But he thought of God's will, not mine, and chose God's will, not mine. That is why he chose the way of the cross. (Prayer in Gethsemane)
And at that time, the way of the cross was clearly the way of failure, the way of destruction, and the way of death. However, because God was with us, it became the road to success, victory, and eternal life.
So here we are, what have we chosen, and where are we going now? Are you walking along the path of faith united only with Jesus Christ? Or maybe, like Lot, like Adam and Eve, are you choosing what you see and living your life?
The choice is free. However, you must remember that you are responsible for your choices. Now let us all once again look back at our faith. And let's choose the right path. Let's choose the path that the Lord has taken, not the path that is easy to see, but the path that is in line with God's will and walk. The Lord is walking with those who have chosen Him right now.