d I know I’m not bitter today but I’m a half a mile from it I’m I’m I’m human and I’m capable of feeling both the emotion of something that I don’t want to let go of and the same time knowing a god that says I’m into freedom I it was for freedom that I set you free don’t don’t make yourself a slave again and so I’m mostly thinking about what is on our minds with the 20th anniversary of september 11th but I’m also thinking when I

bring the word up remember I think of jesus and the cross and and I think of the ultimate of sacrifice not by accident but the ultimate by intention and purpose and plan so I want to invite you for a few moments to start personal with your own life if there’s something you need to get past to let go of would you do that right now we’re gonna bow our heads and just give you here in the house and those watching at home a chance to just

do that you might be in the room with somebody right now that is there’s something in the way and it’s something you can’t get past without letting go of and how do you do that I’ll warn you you can’t do that alone not with a whole lot of success so you need help and so do I if it’s a if it’s a a personal hurt like that let it go be like paul said of the stuff that everybody praised him for forgetting all these things forget

what lies behind I press on he had a bad chapter he wanted to forget but he spoke about it for the rest of his life and he spoke of it in a redemptive free way so that’s our aim right now let’s just pray and I’ll lead us in a moment I’ll just give you a moment to really use this time to come to jesus one of the most succinct ways you put it in your word lord is a a very accessible way we get it when

you say let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice that’s the spirit that’s hardest to get rid of for sure on our own it’s that intent to get even let all of those things be put away from you and be kind to one another tender hearted forgiving each other just as god in christ also has forgiven you and sure enough you can’t talk about true deep real forgiveness without talking about the source of it

the sustainable I let it go can only come because of you jesus and that’s why the cross is important to talk about we don’t just talk about it because it’s that horrible day but we talk about it because it’s what took to set us free to live for you on this day so we do so now by choice and we we want to remember so we don’t make mistakes and go there again whatever we’re thinking about and whatever folks have prayed to you about but god

we know that in order to stay free is to keep our eyes on you jesus the author and perfecter of our faith who for the joy set before him endured the cross despised its shame and now is seated at the right hand of the father so help us to do that thank you for this really important time to be together before you in a quiet personal moment for the glory that will come from all this we give it to you now jesus in your wonderful name

we pray all god’s people said amen amen I want to echo what was said about the wonderful refreshing sight of john knapp up here today I almost teased him at the beginning and said just stay up there and preach okay so you finish leading us in worship but you guys this was really special and of course lindsay’s here as well and they’re family they’re part of grace point and if you’re a part of grace point you’re here in the house and those of you watching online

from I know as far away as the east coast right now and even in some foreign countries I want to call your attention to a loss that we’ve suffered as a church family on friday lowell arno a long time he and linda I they arrived they were here before I arrived and they were very important in the life of grace point he turned for home on friday and is now face to face with jesus christ so keep them in your prayers linda and the girls and

we will we miss him but we will see him again amen amen so how many of you are twins one okay I don’t want to miss anybody all right so did you know and I’ll ask you but maybe everybody can chime in identical twins aren’t identical did you know that I maybe I’m the only guy that learned that news this week but I was surprised and a little shocked actually it is true that they share a lot identical twins do I’m not going to go into

the biology of why that is but they have the same chromosomes and genes basically that caused them to look and and actually hear my voice they sound very similar most of the time and appear the same for complex reasons okay but the truth is they aren’t the same indeed no two humans I was surprised by this no two humans have the exact same fingerprint no two not even identical twins now my point in describing so-called identical twins is to call attention to a guaranteed difference maker

well something that even identical twins would raise their hand and say that describes me and my brother or me and my sister it’s it’s got a name actually it’s the word I just prayed at the end of my prayer choice choice guarantees that no two humans are quite the same or turn out quite the same all right so stay with me now for a second it is a let’s think of money in your pocket okay if you have let’s say a hundred dollars cash okay none

of you have a hundred so let’s go 10 okay you got 10 bucks in your in your pocket right that’s currency and if you took it out today and spent it you would be spending it your way if I did the same I would spend it my way the chances are almost well really guaranteed it’s not going to be spent the exact same way so we have this currency I’m calling choice and choice is going to be spent differently by all room full of people and

it guarantees that the results will be different as well things we choose we know this from experience I’m not this is no news flash things we choose can change us can’t they I mean that’s that’s it that’s a fact for better they can change us or for worse it can go either way you and I know that some examples for example if you want to lose weight something most of us have wanted at different times in our life if you want to lose weight you must

choose to eat less almost every diet plan will tell you that’s at least part of the picture they might say you also must choose exercise or whatever it happens to be so we get that how about learning some kind of skill let’s say you want to actually learn something that you don’t know how to do at all or you’re kind of a rookie edit you’re not great at it but you want to get better than you are right so take it writing counseling preaching playing an

instrument think of other things being a mechanic fixing cars painting how many have had to do a paint job over that’s why I am like anti-paint jobs because I some things you can choose to be better at and it just doesn’t happen it’s not in your dna to do it better but you get my idea so in all of those examples I gave you an a ton more you’ve got to choose to practice I have not met a single person that plays like vicky canez at

this piano that just showed up right isn’t that true right she’s stinking good I mean ridiculously good right well guess what you may not know this but I have an office around the corner not far from this room we gather in and I hear her at that piano during the week still she’s been playing here 100 years or so I mean she’s been a long time it’s incredible and I’m I’m saluting you vicki because that’s the kind of dedication that makes you everybody’s favorite and the

best ever it’s just crazy so by the way this principle gets real serious real fast because it applies to something that’s really important in our lives if you want to get grow in your love for jesus christ and it’s not just something you’d expect me to say somehow on a list of illustrations no that’s why we’re here so if you and I want to get closer to jesus christ here’s something for you you’ve got to choose to spend time with him amen that’s it so the

sermon’s done everybody let’s go home let’s so the more you do that is the more you spend time with jesus the more the desire for him will grow in your heart and now I have a strange question to follow all that up with you get to raise your hand on this how many of you have been forced at some time in your life to fall in love I see one and that shocks me I’m just raising my hand to kind of tease you a little bit

here okay no because most of you are looking at me going really no that’s that my your question pastor is an oxymoron you know what that means mutually contradictory that they don’t fit together I mean that just doesn’t happen right I mean picture this okay I love you you’re looking at me like pastor I didn’t feel it right right let me you just wrecked romance for me pastor okay okay I love you no it just doesn’t work that way I’ve just described something that’s really true

in the bible okay and that is this choice was built into the dna of every single man and woman that has ever lived on this planet we call home choice was built into their dna by god himself it’s true he wants with humans what can’t be forced a love relationship let’s just take that in any other method messes it up doesn’t it it goes off the rails it doesn’t satisfy and it certainly wouldn’t sustain us so I want you to follow a sequence that you you

will not have hard time finding it is the first page of the bible go to genesis chapter 1 with you this morning genesis at the beginning of the bible calls attention to a sequence of thought that I think you’re going to find very revealing god designed the world in such a way that people have a special place in it I understand some of you love your animals your dogs your cats your whatevers okay I see a growing number of people pushing strollers with pets in them

coming up my street it’s just different than I used to have a stroller and it always had a child in it but anyway okay I I’m okay if you’re okay we’ll just let that one go but humans have a special place I can’t get that image out of my mind and it’s every day they come up and say it’s just wrong but anyway so I get what I just said to you humans have a special place in his creation I get that based on the opening

narrative in chapter one of genesis which covers the six days of creation it wasn’t seven seventh day he rested right but you can kind of see them all there light day one sky and water day two land and sea day three day four was a busy day okay day four comes up with sun moon and stars there’s a lot up there and that all happened on day four right so then day five comes along and you’ve got fish and birds for the record not enough salmon

but anyway five day five and then there was actually a lot of them but we wrecked that but anyway that’s day five day six animals and humans my biology teacher was wrong humans are animals no they’re not we are humans for reasons that will follow okay we’re humans and we have a special place in his heart since we’re the only thing that he created in those six days that was made in his image imago day is the word so write that down we are the only

we share that with no one or nothing and yeah it’s the deal so imago day is kind of a complex thing but I want you just to hear it in his words verse 26 of chapter one and god said let us make mankind in our image wait a second let us yes that’s an early reference to trinity to the mutuality of father son holy spirit so people go where’s this trinity come from well all over the bible start in the first chapter okay so genesis 1

26 let us make mankind in our image in our likeness so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky over the livestock and all the wild animals and over all the creatures that move along the ground look verse 27 so god created mankind he says it again in his own image imago day he says it again in the image of god he created them male and female he created them let me bring three words into focus for a

sec there’s a lot more than this what is it about god’s image that’s true of me some of you are squinting like I don’t see it really well you know I get that okay is it omniscience I’m all-knowing not true I’m a smart guy but I’m really stupid in some circles okay so I’m I don’t know that doesn’t apply to me is it omnipotent well let me just say I’m a strong man but I’m not all powerful not even close in fact the older I get

the less I can lift okay that’s not fair but anyway and then here’s another one am I omnipresent can I be in any can I be in more than one place at one time no we all know that so it couldn’t be referring to that what is it let me give you my take on it the things that make humans unique from all the rest of creation cognitive affective and volitional we have the ability as humans to think critically analytically contemplatively that’s a distinction that certainly

exists in god secondly volitional we have the ability to feel we don’t just you know ignore you know something awful it and we don’t just play it out in our head and go wow that’s a bummer hard for them no you’re weird if you do or worse you the truth is you feel something the worship we just had was more than song it was more than sounds it was it was moving it it made us why do we raise our hands because there’s this sense of

wow lord you’re real and these words fit what we’re doing right now and it’s there’s this cognitive we think affective we feel and then it leads to volitional that means we are able to act and we write this down not act we’re able to decide and not decide we’re able to do and not do all right now we’re we’re going places that third feature of his image volitional is the act I looked it up the act of choice and of making choices and decisions and it

appears in the very first words god has not spoken to humanity yet but he does so in the very next verse you’re about to see the first quotations in all the bible 128 god blessed them and said to them quote be fruitful and increase in number fill the earth and subdue it rule over the fish in the sea the birds in the sky and every living creature that moves on the ground those words in chapter 1 verse 20 28 imply imply the possibility that humans can

in fact choose not to be fruitful they can choose not to fill the earth and worst of all they can choose not to rule over in a loving way that god designed for them to do so now I don’t want to get too drawn in and have you glaze over so I want you to just turn you don’t even have to flip the page in my bible turn a chapter later and I want you to see the first warning ever issued by god where he presents

people happen to be adam at this time but it was adam and eve and then their children and the rest of us by extension it’s the he issues this warning to those people and us that have freedom to choose correctly or face certain consequences you with me it’s in chapter two look at verse 15. The lord god took the man and put him in the garden of eden to work it and take care of it so he had a job to do and the lord god

commanded the man we know him as adam you’re free to eat from any tree in the garden would you circle the word free if you’re circling things in your bible it’s a really important word it’s the first time it appears in the bible it’s still god’s desire check out galatians 5 1 it was for freedom that christ set us free how did we go from free to oh that’s right sin that comes up in a second the lord god commanded the man you are free to

eat from any tree in the garden I imagine god looking like this when he said those words to adam with a smile I made this on an earlier day of creation and I made it we were told here at least in part for your pleasure adam and so it’s not surprising he would say you’re free to enjoy it to eat from any tree in the garden don’t stop reading but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but when you

eat from it you will certainly die and tragically we know the outcome don’t we if you’re unfamiliar to that you’re brand new to this you’re wondering how did this thing go bad I again I don’t even have to change the page it’s the next chapter chapter 3 verse 6 tells us when the when the woman check this out they chose right here not what god commanded but frankly what they wanted verse six reads when the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for

food and pleasing to the eye can you feel the cognitive the affective now watch this and also desirable for gaining wisdom she made a decision she took some and ate it and she also gave some to her husband for very indicting words incriminating words who was with her in other words he stood there he was part of the decision at least in his case he had no excuse and he ate it they did what they wanted and and it didn’t turn out well they ignored what

god said about the freedom thing with restraint with a limitation they chose badly right would you all agree with that that’s not just my my you know critique of the garden it’s like you had a chance to choose well but you didn’t and verse 6 tells us that you didn’t and the consequences have been with us ever since you may already know this but in the very next chapter they have kids this first couple there’s a whole lot of language from god drawing them out drawing

the facts out as I just described them and him telling about about the consequences that they would now face and then chapter four begins by revealing their family and you wonder okay maybe that was just a bad day for adam and eve I know you know the outcome so it’s hard to talk to a class that knows the answers but trust me with this they they have kids and today we wonder maybe the next generation will be better more enlightened not make the same mistakes they

had two kids kane and abel cain was a farmer abel he liked sheep he was a shepherd and they bring offerings to god we’re told and for whatever reason we’re not told why verse 4 says god accepted one one’s offering it was abel’s it actually says he accepted abel and his offering but he rejected cain’s offering I could guess all day long why that was I don’t know but cain saw it all go down and it and it didn’t land well with him and it caused

him to seethe quietly at first and he can’t he can’t deal with this but whatever the case is it makes him mad and he says this look at the narrative verse six of chapter four the lord said to cain because he saw this he saw cain’s countenance fall why are you so ticked off that’s what we would say today right why are you so angry why is your face downcast that’s the sunken spirit if you do what is right will you not be accepted but if

you do not do what is right let me stop myself and ask you the question that’s not or the word that’s not here but it’s woven through god’s words to the offspring of adam and eve choice if you do what is right because you are made in my image incapable of the volition of choosing right if you choose what is right it won’t you be accepted won’t things go well for you but if you do not choose what is right do what is right sin is

crouching at your door its desire is to have you wow this is like a monster movie it wants in in where in your heart in your life is there evil in the world today I ask you yeah what is the hardest place to find it do you see me pointing yeah it’s not a in a pat don’t say in a pastor okay or that’s not what I mean I mean in my heart and you should be thinking the same thing it’s like no this wasn’t just

mom and dad that were all messed up this is the first two kids in the bible why did they choose badly god was saying cain you have a choice he says that still between two very different options that result in very different outcomes this makes sense I gave you the choice they’re really different options but you need to know they take you a different direction it’s the continental divide you all know about that image one takes you to the atlantic ocean the other takes you to

the pacific they they take you to different locations choose to do what is right oh I almost forgot you probably know the outcome but if you haven’t read this story in a while look at verse 8. Now cain said to his brother abel hey let’s go out into the field let’s get over this problem well not so much while they were in the field cain attacked him he jumped him and killed him and that same struggle remains with people like you and me to this day

we’re not talking about a strange view an exception to the rule we face choices different options that lead to different outcomes one of my favorite people to talk about especially in this subject is the apostle paul he actually pulls the curtain back on his own struggle with what we’re reading here you’ll read this later it’s in your notes to go to romans chapter seven but I just want to picture it for you he said this about watch me the seesaw of choices you ever felt that

way remember seesaws as a kid you know and and you could go this way or you can go this way they go you know and he struggled with that in his own life and this is what he said in romans 7. I I really don’t understand myself you ever felt that way why did it do it flip you remember flip wilson used to say the devil made me do it well that might be partially true he might have enticed you but actually the decision to do

it the choice to go there is you it’s me but back to paul he says you know I I don’t really understand myself I I want to do what is right I start every day wanting that I don’t think I premeditated hurting anybody on any given day some people do but I don’t but it doesn’t turn out that way paul says but I don’t do it I want to do what is right but I don’t do it I want to do what is good but I

don’t he’s not finished I want to do I don’t want to do what is wrong but I do it anyway is he messed up or what it’s okay to say yes because he’s admitting it he’s going this is a see-saw in my life listen to this oh what a miserable person I am he beats you to it I just don’t get it I want to do good I don’t I don’t want to do bad I do that’s messed up I know you’re thinking man he’s ramped

up today I just I like a guy like paul because he takes the heat off me you know it’s it’s nice to find a guy I admire who goes I’m a miserable person he asked the question who will free me from this life that’s dominated by the terrible choice of sin and death that’s a good question you hopefully if you haven’t asked that you need to ask that and wait for an answer and paul came up with one a verse later this is all romans seven

and it spills into verse one of chapter eight he says this thank god thank god the answer is in jesus christ my lord right you’re supposed to come to the edge of yourself and go I’m about to give up on me I can’t get there I start out wanting to and I screw up half the way there I’ve had so many people tell me you know there’s a pattern inside me pastor it makes me nervous I’m like tell me your pattern and about halfway into it

I’m turning to romans 7. I’m going well I don’t want to take your thunder away but you’re not the first one to talk that way right would you please read that today especially if you’re like what do we used to call it a two-time loser you’re a 10-time loser or more and who isn’t it’s meant to not make us chuckle it’s meant to make us broken and say god who will deliver me from this god he will fix this but we have to say it with

me choose to let him you can go out and make yourself better but it won’t last sorry if you disagree with me let’s talk later about that it starts with a relationship with jesus it really does remember he wants what can’t be forced a love relationship with people who want the same thing there’s a surprising similarity in what I’m describing today and human marriage my apologies because not everybody’s married but you are instinctively aware of something about married people and this is the surprising similarity because

I think I’m bringing it up because I think it describes a desire god has for people 39 years ago I asked my college sweetheart debbie dean had a cute name I asked debbie dean to be my wife my words were really simple I got down on bended knee on the steps of the capitol in washington dc you can’t all see me so I’ll sneak forward debbie will you and I waited for a simple sweet answer that I had hoped for and planned on I will my

my question was simple debbie will you her answer was just as simple I will I’m not sure whether I would tell that story if she said not sure or something like that no that’s all it was folks please don’t complicate this that’s all it is with jesus it starts right in the exact place god says of you and me will you he doesn’t say it on bended knee he says it from a cross will you love me because it’s your choice he waits to hear you

say I will praise god I want I need five more minutes it’s really important because it’s more than words that god longs to hear it’s not just oh good he said I will you know check that one off no it’s more than words it’s about choices that show that our words are true I will lord and then we we have choices that say you know what else it’s true I really love you jesus on the last night he was with his disciples in john 14. You

need to turn there if you would just in this last moment it’s breaking my own rules to have you move so far from the start this late in a sermon but chapter 14 john he’s with his disciples but the night he’s arrested and ends up crucified the next morning and gives an ex explanation and and really clarification here and there’s no better time to state this than at the beginning of this series that I’ve titled choices do what is right okay this all ties to judges

next week but for now this is important let’s just join jesus in this upper room for a second with his disciples and he’s he’s promising here and this is the last night they’re about to arrest him and in this setting jesus promises the holy spirit’s presence on the horizon and jesus makes a connection that can I just say it out loud I’m going to call it out is widely misunderstood or even completely ignored today you say really look at verse 15 and you’ll see really he

says simply if you love me what keep my commandments somebody give me another word for keep my commandments obey it’s in half about half of the translations go either way whoever has my commands and keeps them he goes on to say would you look down at verse 21 whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me the one who loves me will be loved by my father and I too will love them and show myself to them so whoever keeps my commands

he says in verse 21 meaning you cannot keep his commands but they show that you love him so to say I know you have commanded me to do this jesus I I get that but I’m I’m not really into the monday to friday religion it’s I you know you know I keep jesus in the spiritual closet but I don’t want to get carried away here and some people say you know I that explains why I really don’t you don’t see a lot of him I made

I made peace with him but you don’t see a lot of him in the way I practice my life and the bible is saying here in verse 15 and verse 21 that points to a love problem okay some people have pushback right now to a suggestion that sounds like that what do you mean you know I love jesus but I feel a little judged to hear somebody say you know if I don’t somehow show it in my life or lack the obedience I’ve got some kind

of love problem well actually that’s exactly what I’m saying but the truth is I didn’t say that jesus said that it comes from jesus the same jesus who said someplace else to people with foul language they got potty mouth they’re people that struggle with you know dropping f-bombs and things like that and they go oh that got away from me and they think they got a tongue problem a speech problem and jesus called him out of matthew 12 34 says no the problems not here just

keep following back where that tongue takes you it’s a heart problem matthew 12 34 out of the mouth flows that which fills the heart so don’t don’t miss the point here jesus connects loving him and choosing to obey him in these final two verses verse 23 anyone who loves me will obey my teaching my father will love them and we will come to them and make our home with them anyone who does not choose to obey me look at verse 24 anyone who does not love

me will not choose to obey me these words you hear and on my own they belong to the father who sent me clearly choices that we every one of us faces big and small here’s one visible and invisible behind the curtains they tell a story don’t they of our hearts in our relationship with jesus it’s about the quality of love in our hearts for jesus my prayer is that we will embrace the connection jesus is making between our claim to love him and our choice every

day to live for him and that we will choose daily to do what is right I’d like you to bow your heads with me this morning and lord some of us we come to you now because we are people like the apostle paul I saw all kinds of reaction at that moment this morning and I felt it in my soul that that is such a picture of the seesaw in our hearts people who love you lord and want to live for you but we fall short

and that leaves us frustrated some of us don’t choose the good we should choose like paul said and it be becomes a pattern and the worst part is we just keep on doing it it leaves us feeling miserable and stuck does that describe you this morning if it does I’d like to lead you in prayer god set me free from my sinful habit of saying I love you but it doesn’t show saying I love you but not obeying you and by your holy spirit’s help cause

me to choose to show that I love you by doing what is right if that needs major

Transcript machine-generated from the sermon audio, so it may contain errors. 6,048 words.