Youth Week - July 2003
8 July, 10am: Summary of sermon by Erlo Stegen

Deut 30:19

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:

God puts life and death before us and we have to choose for ourselves.

A good example of what this choosing involves, is the following story of Edwin Thomas Booth:

A famous actor of the 19^th century, Edwin Thomas, had 2 brothers, John and Julius. He was the shorter of them, but with a booming voice. He was exceptionally gifted in acting. His brothers were also gifted but to a lesser degree. When he was 15 years old, he was already participating in plays in America and Britain, Shakespearen plays like Hamlet, Julius Caesar, etc The theaters were packed, people wanting to see him and his brothers acting.

Once in 1863 he played the role of Hamlet for over 100 days. John played the role of Brutus (the murderer). As John was acting, satan was busy influencing him and so one very cold night, as the US president attended, John hid on the stage behind a box, having a gun with him. Abraham Lincoln was sitting in the front and John shot him in the head so that he died. A hero of America gone.

Edwin was finished by this shameful thing which his brother had done. That was the very last day that he ever acted. By this time he was world famous as his picture had been in newspapers all over the world.

One day Edwin was at a railway station, close to where a train was about to leave. The station was full of people. The train started to move and the crowd was pressing from behind. A young man was pushed forward by the crowd, and he slipped and fell in between the platform and the railway track. The train was about to crush him. When Edwin saw that, risking his own life, he put out his leg on the platform to save that young man. The man he had rescued, recognized that this was Edwin Thomas, but Edwin didn't recognize who this young man was. Two weeks later, though, Edwin received a letter from a General congratulating him for rescuing a man of great importance: the son of one of the heroes of the nation. He was Robert Tod Lincoln, the son of the assassinated president, who had been killed by Edwin's brother. The whole world applauded this heroic act through which he had saved the son of the assassinated president.

Edwin kept that letter in his pocket always, till his last day - as a witness for himself and to remind him, and as a comfort that even though his brother had killed the president, he (without realizing that it was him) had saved the son of the president.

God had put life and death before them: Edwin chose life, saving the life of the president's son; his brother had chosen death, killing the president.

Two boys, born of the same mother, brought up in the same house. But one chose life and the other death.

The Bible is full of it, every page of it, that we are presented with the choice between life and death.

It will go according to our choice whether we will prosper or not. This applies to nations and to individuals.

Choose life and you will be blessed; choose death and curses will follow you.

There are many different examples of this in the Bible:

1. The story of Cain and Abel: They were born of the same parents but one was righteous while the other chose death. (Jesus said we must not be surprised about this, for He has come to bring a sword: 2 on this side, 3 on the other).
2. Abraham and Lot were together in the promised land: Abraham chose to serve God; Lot chose Sodom and Gomorrah. God allowed Lot, but he had to reap the results.
3. King David and king Saul: David chose life and was blessed; Saul chose power and authority, and was finished off by the Amalekites.
4. 2 disciples, Peter and Judas: Both denied Jesus, but one chose life and came to the Lord for forgiveness, while the other ended in a terrible way.

On every page in the Bible and right through history we see this.

God allows us to make our own choices. What will we choose? God will make our choice evident and public - our life from now on will show whether we have chosen life or death.

No one explains this truth as well as our Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 7:13-14 -

1. Narrow and broad ways: One doesn't go through the narrow gate with a burden of sin - that is left at the foot of the Cross. Jesus said: "Choose, for wide and broad is the way of destruction, but narrow is the gate going to life". Choose whether you want to go the broad way with the majority, or with the few on the narrow way.
2. One can build your house on the sand or the rock - choose.
3. Choose between God and mammon/money - one cannot choose both.
4. Matthew 25 - Jesus spoke about the sheep and the goats. You must choose. The Lord Himself will separate them: the sheep into eternal life and the goats to eternal destruction.

God gives us the choice - do we vote for life or death?

Our choosing will be of eternal consequence. For all eternity one will live with the consequences of your choosing.

This is not a choice to be postponed. Make your choice now.

In America a young man, Woody, was sitting right at the back of a service. His father had died and with his inheritance Woody had bought a nice car. As the preacher was preaching, he felt prompted to go to Woody there at the back to encourage him to accept the Lord. He did so, but Woody said that he would come to the evening service and then give his life to the Lord.

After the service he and his friend did some car racing, he lost control of his car and was decapitated. His headless torso was found.