Choose Your Destiny

So below is the text of the message I gave in church yesterday.

You can also listen to the audio here:  Choose Your Destiny – Audio

Towards the end of the post there is a video that I played to close out the message.  Note that the audio from this video can be heard on the file above.  Enjoy, and God Bless.

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Good morning! It is an honor to be here to talk to you this morning. I serve New Life as a member of the Leadership group and as the church treasurer. After all, I’m an accountant by profession.

Today, I want to talk to you about the choices we make – specifically, the choices we make that impact our destiny.

How many of you have seen “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”? This was the 3rd of the Indiana Jones films. If you haven’t seen it…well…I’m going to give away a key moment in the film…so sorry about your bad luck.

You may recall that Indy must search for his missing father, who has spent his lifetime searching for the legendary Holy Grail, allegedly the cup from which Jesus drank at the Last Supper. As the film nears the end, Indy must make a choice to select the right cup from a vast selection of cups – the right choice leads to life…and the wrong choice leads to death.

Quoting the Grail Knight who has guarded the cup: “But choose wisely, for while the true Grail will bring you life, the false Grail will take it from you”.

So when the wrong cup is selected, leading to the death of a character, the Grail Knight deadpans, “He chose…poorly.”

When the right cup is later selected, the Grail Knight looks at Indy and says, “You have chosen…wisely.”

So let me ask you – with regard to your relationship with God, have you made poor choices? Or have you made wise choices? The answer to those questions clearly impacts your destiny.

To help us explore these questions, we’re going to look at the life of Manasseh, one of the kings of Judah.
Open up your Bibles to 2 Chronicles 33: 1-17.

Before we begin, let’s set up this passage. When you read through First and Second Kings, and the partner books of First and Second Chronicles, you read through the history of the kings of Israel and Judah, from David to the start of the exile of the Jews to Babylon. You see a pattern emerge – there are some good kings, there are some bad kings, then a good king, a bad king, etc. – back and forth the nations of Israel and Judah have good and bad kings. The words typically used to describe them are “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord” if a good king, or “He did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord” if a bad king.

In the chapters prior to today’s passage, Scripture tells us the story of Hezekiah, King of Judah. He was a good king for the bulk of the 29 years of his reign – he reintroduced the Passover celebration (2 Chron 30), and he removed the various altars to Baal and other idols and the Asherah poles throughout the kingdom (2 Chron 31). When he died, his son Manasseh became king, and that’s where we start in 2 Chron 33.

1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years.

Think back a moment to your own youth and what you were probably like at the age of 12. You were a middle schooler, probably testing some of the limits of your parents’ authority – did some eye-rolling at the things they said, but for the most part, you probably listened to them. I think Manasseh was likely much the same – he had dutifully worshipped at the temple, grew up in a good Jewish home – after all, his dad was the king of Judah – but I imagine he wasn’t too crazy about going to temple, right?

Looking at my own life, I was much the same way – I grew up in a church, spent a lot of time in choir, youth group and other assorted activities, and there were times that I wasn’t too crazy about going to church on Sundays. In addition, I went to a Lutheran elementary and junior high school, so I was pretty well churched out as a kid. I shared this story with some of you before.

I still remember those times in class when our bleached blonde fifty-something principal would walk into our classroom and unapologetically asked the class to stand up and recite Psalm 23 or The Apostle’s Creed or The Lord’s Prayer in unison.

We’d all stand…”Our Father…who art in heaven…hallowed be thy name.”

“Class…stop. The word is HAL-LOW-WED, not hallowed. Say it…HAL-LOW-WED.”

And we’d repeat “HAL-LOW-WED” a few more times before having to restart the prayer from the top in unison.

It wasn’t one of my favorite moments growing up. And I think Manasseh probably had similar moments learning and reciting from the Torah, and might not have enjoyed some of his childhood religious education.

Let’s read on:

2 He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, following the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites. 3 He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had demolished; he also erected altars to the Baals and made Asherah poles. He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshiped them.

You know what I think? Manasseh rebelled during his teen years. It’s one thing to be doing lots of eye-rolling at that age, but another to do the exact opposite of what his father had done. Put yourself in his shoes for a moment. He was going through an awkward stage in his life…I mean, his body was changing, his voice was certainly changing (he couldn’t hit those high notes in the boys’ choir anymore) and while I’m certain he would have mourned the loss of his father, there probably came a point sometime in his reign where he thought back to what he disliked about his upbringing and thought…

“YES! I don’t have to go to temple anymore. I’m the king…and I can do WHATEVER I WANT!”

What did Manasseh do? He CHOSE to do the exact opposite of his father as the king of Judah. He rebelled. The Grail Knight would say, “He chose…poorly.”
To be fair, Scripture doesn’t tell us at what age Manasseh does this – it only tells us that he does it and it really angers God. Look at what he does, starting in verse 4:

4 He built altars in the temple of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “My Name will remain in Jerusalem forever.” 5 In both courts of the temple of the LORD, he built altars to all the starry hosts. 6 He sacrificed his sons in [a] the fire in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, practiced sorcery, divination and witchcraft, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the LORD, provoking him to anger.
7 He took the carved image he had made and put it in God’s temple, of which God had said to David and to his son Solomon, “In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my Name forever. 8 I will not again make the feet of the Israelites leave the land I assigned to your forefathers, if only they will be careful to do everything I commanded them concerning all the laws, decrees and ordinances given through Moses.” 9 But Manasseh led Judah and the people of Jerusalem astray, so that they did more evil than the nations the LORD had destroyed before the Israelites.

So Manasseh desecrated the temple – he placed idols IN the temple – in DIRECT violation of what God had warned David and Solomon.

It makes me think about what Paul wrote to the church at Corinth. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says:

19Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit – and we regularly desecrate those temples, don’t we?
What are the idols you have placed in your temple? What are the idols that have led you astray, apart from God, and keep you in a lukewarm place at best in your relationship with God?
Here are a few examples…

• Pride? Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. – Proverbs 16:18

• Sexual sin? Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. – I Corinthians 6:18

• Money and Materialism? “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. – Matthew 6:24

• The things you say – gossip, profanity? Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. – Ephesians 4:29; Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. – Proverbs 16:24

Francis Chan, in his book “Crazy Love – Overwhelmed by a Relentless God” has an entire chapter called “Profile of the Lukewarm”. Chan asks this question and takes these even further:

Would you describe yourself as totally in love with Jesus Christ? Or do the words halfhearted, lukewarm, and partially committed fit better?

He then goes to give a rundown of this profile – idols that keep us lukewarm and partially committed. Let me share a few….

Lukewarm people:
• Care more about what people think of their actions than what God thinks of their hearts and lives. Luke 6:26, Matt 23:5-7
• Gauge their morality or goodness by comparing themselves to the secular world. They feel satisfied that while they aren’t as hard-core for Jesus as so-and-so, they are nowhere as horrible as the guy down the street. Luke 18:11-12
• Really don’t want to be saved from their sin; they want only to be saved from the penalty of their sin. They don’t genuinely hate sin and aren’t truly sorry for it; they’re merely sorry because God is going to punish them, and don’t really believe that this new life Jesus offers is better than the old sinful one. John 10:10, Rom 6:1-2
• Give Jesus a section of their time, their money and their thoughts, but He isn’t allowed to control their lives. Luke 9:57-62
• Love others but do not seek to love others as much as they love themselves. Their love of others is typically focused on those who love them in return, like family, friends and other people they know and connect with. Matt 5:43-47, Luke 14:12-14
• Do whatever is necessary to keep themselves from feeling too guilty. They want to do the bare minimum, to be “good enough” without it requiring too much of them. 1 Chron 29:14, Matt 13:44-46
• Probably drink and swear less than average, but besides that, they really aren’t very different from your typical unbeliever. They equate their partially sanitized lives with holiness, but they couldn’t be more wrong. Matt 23:25-28
• Are continually concerned with playing it safe; they are slaves to the god of control. This focus on safe living keeps them from sacrificing and risking for God. 1 Tim 6:17-18, Matt 10:28

Ouch.

Do you recognize yourself in any of these? I do. When I first read this list, I could see that I have done many of these things over the years – and in some cases, still struggle with some.

I’ve been the guy who cares about trying to look cool in front of my friends.

I’ve had that thought, “I’m not as hard-core for Jesus as my pastor, but at least I haven’t cheated on my wife like THAT guy.”

I have rationalized my way out of giving back to God. “I don’t have enough money this week, so I’ll just throw in a couple of bucks and make it up next week.” Only I never did follow up. Or “I’ll be able to give more money when I make more money.” But when I make more, I spend more…elsewhere.

My love for people outside my immediate sphere IS conditional. There’s that annoying guy at work who hijacks meetings. There’s the guy who cut me off on the highway, or the check out clerk at the store who’s taking far too long helping the customer in front of me.

I’m a “cool Christian” because I drink and cuss so I don’t look too weird around my non-Christian friends, and care more about what they think of me than what God might think of me.

1) The biggest idol in my life…is me (v7,8).

I have been lukewarm about my faith; I’ve had a halfhearted attitude towards Jesus because I care more about ME more than I care about Jesus and what HE wants me to do.

Is that true of you?

We are just as bad, just as rebellious, as Manasseh. We have chosen to rebel and THEREFORE we have chosen poorly. God wants to put His Name forever in our temples, in our hearts, but we clutter those temples with idols to OURSELVES that we are unwilling to let go and THAT keeps us lukewarm in our faith. Look at verse 10 as we read on about Manasseh:

10 The LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention.

Change out Manasseh’s name and insert your own name. “The Lord spoke to Andy, but he paid no attention.”
“The Lord spoke to Linda, but she paid no attention.”
“The Lord spoke to Jonathan, but he paid no attention.”
Or how about this…

2) “The Lord speaks to ME, but I choose not to pay attention.”(v10)

I’ve got news for you…God’s trying to get our attention and tell us to clean up our act – He wants to restore us…but we…don’t…pay…attention. I really believe God is always talking to us; we choose to ignore Him the vast majority of the time, just like Manasseh.

One thing that has helped me learn to pay closer attention to God’s voice has been the process of discipleship. I have been fortunate to be part of a discipleship group since early August, meeting early one morning per week with a small group of guys on a journey to deepen our faith in Christ. In one of the early readings in our study book, “Discipleship Essentials”, we studied what Jesus said in Mark 8:35 –

If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

How does Discipleship Essentials unpack that verse?

To deny yourself means to deny your self-lordship. It means saying no to the god who is me, to reject the demands of the god who is me, to refuse to obey the claims of the god who is me. (It is) A decisive NO – “I do not know Lord Me-I do not bow down to him or her anymore.” Jesus calls us to say no to ourselves so we can say yes to him.

When we’re lukewarm, we care more for ourselves – we bow at the altar that is ME – and we desecrate the temple…just like Manasseh. And we say no to Jesus.

Let’s read on…verse 11:

11 So the LORD brought against them the army commanders of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh prisoner, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon.
God was frustrated enough with Manasseh that He allowed him to be taken prisoner by the Assyrians, shackled and taken to Babylon.

Let me ask you – what is keeping you shackled? What are you allowing to keep you in bondage and apart from the freedom that comes with life in Christ?

12 In his distress he sought the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. 13 And when he prayed to him, the LORD was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea; so he brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD is God.

Manasseh finally broke. Living the life of a hostage in Babylon proved to be too much for him. He was at the lowest and weakest point in his life, and he did the only thing he knew he could do.

He called out to God.

Let me rephrase that. Manasseh CHOSE to call out to God. Manasseh CHOSE to be humbled. Manasseh CHOSE to be restored. To paraphrase the Grail Knight from the Indiana Jones film…”He chose wisely.”

Psalm 138:3
When I called, you answered me; you made me bold and stouthearted.

I believe Manasseh drew upon what he had learned as a youth, remembered the Scriptures he had been taught, and ultimately drew upon the only Person who could help him at his weakest point. And God answered his prayer to show him his grace and mercy, by releasing him from his bondage, and restoring Him.

Manasseh, arguably the most evil of the kings of Judah (as noted in 2 Chron 33:9), was saved. Look at what he does after his release:

14 Afterward he rebuilt the outer wall of the City of David, west of the Gihon spring in the valley, as far as the entrance of the Fish Gate and encircling the hill of Ophel; he also made it much higher. He stationed military commanders in all the fortified cities in Judah.
15 He got rid of the foreign gods and removed the image from the temple of the LORD, as well as all the altars he had built on the temple hill and in Jerusalem; and he threw them out of the city. 16 Then he restored the altar of the LORD and sacrificed fellowship offerings [b] and thank offerings on it, and told Judah to serve the LORD, the God of Israel.

He began to live a transformed life, because he finally chose to restore his relationship with God.

3) Choose Wisely and Be Transformed (v13).

So let me ask you…what is holding you back from restoration with God? If you are already a follower of Jesus, what is keeping you from taking the next step in your spiritual growth? What idols do you need removed from YOUR temple? And do you really KNOW Jesus and trust that through Him, your life will be transformed and restored the very same way as Manasseh?

What practical steps are YOU taking to get to know Jesus? If you’ve got an hour to watch TV everyday, don’t you think you have at least a few minutes to read some Scripture or pray? How can you get to know Jesus if you don’t spend anytime with Him?

Several of you know of Mark Batterson, pastor of National Community Church in Washington DC, since you have been reading his books). On his blog last week, Batterson wrote this about the Bible:
There are three ways to translate the Bible. You can translate it with 1) your mind 2) your heart and 3) your life.

I think a lot of us settle for the mental translation. But the end result is information. And what happens is this: we learn more, do less, and think we’re growing spiritually. But not if that’s the only translation.

The second translation is emotional. And the emotional translation may seem more subjective than intellectual translation. But that is when our hearts break for the things that break the heart of God. It’s not just information. It’s transformation.

Finally, there is the life translation. That is when we become a “living epistle.” That is when the noun turns into a verb. And that is how we change the world. At the end of the day, Jesus isn’t going to say, “Well thought good and faithful servant.” He’s going to say, “Well done good and faithful servant.”

Are you ready to spend some time with Jesus and be transformed?

Are you ready to become a “living epistle”?

Are you ready to choose restoration?

Are you ready to choose wisely?

There’s a great quote in Discipleship Essentials that has stuck with me as I prepared this message…

Human bondage in all its forms is the result of being our own gods. Freedom comes when we lay down the ill-gotten, false crown, when we say no, when we live as though the gods who are us have already died. The road to new life goes through the death of the old.

Let the old “you” die. Reject your rebellious streak. Come to Jesus to be restored. If Manasseh can be saved, so can you.

Romans 5:6-8 (The Message): Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.

As we close, I’d like to draw your attention to the screen for a brief video. Watch…listen…and engage… (The text below will be a voiceover a video that encapsulates this piece from “Becoming Who God Intended” by David Eckman).

Take a moment to imagine the time in your life when you committed your most embarrassing sin or set of sins. (Or sometimes it’s not a particular sin or shameful pattern but a particular event that emotionally blackmails Christians – a divorce, for example.) Whatever it is, picture that time. Dredge it up. Pull it up into your awareness, no matter how red-faced you get. The sin might have been only a trifle, or it might have been something terrible. I am not asking you to dwell on it – just bring it up long enough so that you feel the discomfort of the emotions.

Once you have it in your mind, imagine that in the midst of committing that sin or suffering that event, you hear a knocking at the door. The knocking is steady and persistent. You know you must answer it. In great embarrassment and discomfort you go to the door. Your mind races, wondering who it might be…

The neighbors? The police? Your spouse?

Whoever it is, you know you have been found out at your most shameful, guilty, painful moment.

You open the door in great fear – but to your surprise, you are met with the most understanding and compassionate expression you have ever seen in your life. The individual at the door looks in your eyes and says, “I am God the Father. I have picked out this moment because I need to talk with you. Let’s go for a walk.”

You do not refuse. With great hesitation, you step out beside Him. His knock, His voice, His face all communicate massive power and authority. Now He looks at you again with that same striking expression – total understanding marked by real compassion. He says, “I know you are weak. I know what you were doing. I know, whether you recognize it or not, that you intensely dislike Me. And I know that deep at the core you’re ungodly – you have no great interest in a relationship with Me. But I need to share with you that We are the only ones who know who you are. You don’t even know who you are. You are chained by guilt, bound by shame, and filled with deep resentment. You are in a fog of guilt, shame and bad memories – but WE see through the fog.

“But I can see beyond your problems, and I can see someone you have never seen – I can see YOU. Because I know who you are, I’ve intervened at this moment to show you what you are worth to my Son and Me.”

Since you went out through the door, you’ve been hanging your head, staring at your feet. Too overwhelmed by your own feelings, you do not realize the Father has been walking you up a slight slope. Your heart is ricocheting between the embarrassment of true red-handed guilt…and awe at the presence of such a powerful and compassionate Person.

In a kind way He touches your shoulder with His hand and turns you to face the east. He directs your eyes to a hillside, where you see a young man on a cross. His face radiates that same astonishing expression – total understanding marked by real compassion. You suddenly realize the Man on the cross is His Son.

The Father says quietly, “We picked this strategic moment: this moment of great weakness. We didn’t pick the moment in the future when you would be healthy. We chose this moment to show you how serious We are about this and how significant you are to Us. My Son is dying for you because you are worth a Son to Me. You are worth more than your guilt. We are the only ones who know who you are! We know who you are, and I love you.”

Let’s pray.

If you have taken this walk today with the Father to the cross, and you have some guilt or idols that you need to remove from your temple, why don’t you do it right now? If you have been a follower of Jesus for awhile but you have junk in your temple that needs to be released, are you willing to let the Father take care of it for you? Remember, YOU are worth a Son to the Father. YOU are worth more than your guilt.

If you are willing to go of your guilt, your idols, today, raise your hand.

If you don’t yet know Jesus, and you want to know him, and you want to release the idols in your temple, raise your hand, too. YOU are worth a Son to the Father.

Pray out loud with me.

Father God, release me from my sin. Release me from my guilt. Release me from my idols, release me from the idol who is me. Cleanse my temple. I want to hold onto you with my whole heart, and I want to dedicate my life to you, Father. I don’t want to be apart from you…I don’t want to be lukewarm. I want to be on fire for you, Father, I want to become the person YOU know I am. Bring me back to you, Father…bring me back!

In the Mighty Name of Jesus…Amen!