We thank you, Lord, for your Holy Ghost. Where
would we be, Jesus? Without you, Lord, without
your love, without your power. Thank you, Jesus.
I praise you, God. I worship you. Hallelujah.
Feels so good in this place. Hoping I don't mess
it up, but I'm just thankful to be here, thankful
to be in God's presence once again. That's what
it's all about, just trying to be in His presence.
just trying to let Him work in us, work through
us, use us. That's what it's all about. And I'm
just thankful, thankful for my pastor and Sister
Linda for their continued support, their continued
love for me and my family. Thank you, church,
for your love and support. Thank you for praying
for my daughter. You will see her this weekend.
She will be back in church. Thank you. God's
been good. God has been good. If you will, turn
your Bibles to Romans chapter five, verses 17
through 19. Starting off in 17, for if by one
man's offense, death reigned by one, much more
they which receive abundance of grace and of
the gift of righteousness shall reign in life
by one. Jesus Christ. Therefore, as by the offense
of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation,
even so by the righteousness of one the free
gift came upon all men unto justification of
life. For as by one man's disobedience many were
made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous. Let's ask the Lord to
move in this place one more time. God, we thank
you, Lord, for your presence. We thank you for
your Holy Ghost. We thank you, God, for the access
that we have unto you, unto your love, unto your
power, God. We pray, Jesus, that you would move
in this place, God, that, Lord, you would anoint
my words, anoint our hearts to receive what you
have for us tonight, God. I pray, do your work,
Jesus, in this place. Have your way, in Jesus'
name. Amen. I want to speak to you about the
power of choice. You can be seated. On May Day,
1915, Bill Drost was born at a farm on the rolling
hills of New Brunswick, Canada. His life would
be characterized by astounding miracles as he
fulfilled God's prophetic call as a missionary
in South America. When Bill was 10 years old
his older sisters attended a revival meeting
where Maddy Crawford Preached many responded
to her preaching by repenting of their sins Bill's
parents though were troubled by it His mother
did not want her children to be led away with
the error of the devil Five years later another
spiritual stirring came into the area a group
holding Bible meeting spoke of the Holy Ghost
An older friend of Bill's, named Bless, joined
those people. Bless was a champion boxer, tall
and powerful. But he went down to that altar
and became a changed man. Bill's mother was furious
to learn her son had anything to do with Bless
and warned him never again to speak to the man.
But Bill could not resist visiting a Bible meeting
he discovered while riding his bicycle one night.
He marveled at the testimonies he heard, the
songs they sang, and the spontaneous worship.
When he told his mother he had been to the meeting,
she was stunned and said, if you ever go back
there, it will be over my dead body. I now forbid
you to go, and I never want to hear you mention
those holy rollers again. You know they are of
the devil. They have deceived you. Perplexed.
Bill knelt by his bed that night, and with tears
he prayed, Oh God, show me what to do. If these
people are of the devil, they should be told.
Lord, whatever scripture you give me, it will
help me. He dropped his finger on his open Bible,
and it fell on this very verse. Oh, clap your
hands, all ye people, shout unto God with the
voice of triumph. Stunned, Bill said, Oh God,
that's just what those people were doing. They
clapped their hands. As he slept, Bill had a
vivid dream. He saw Jesus coming from glory in
a sky ablaze with beautiful light. He saw the
faces of people he recognized. They were actually
the people he had seen at the Bible meeting.
They were rising to meet Jesus in the air, their
faces filled with great joy. Oh God, take me,
Bill cried out, awaking and jumping from his
bed. He was on his way to discovering what God
had done to make it possible for him to experience
eternal life. Humans, as hopefully we all are,
were created as living souls. And the creation
accounts In the first two chapters of Genesis,
focus on the creation of people from different
perspectives. The first, which is found in Genesis
1, 26 through 29, reveals both male and female
are created in the image of God, both sharing
equal blessings and responsibilities. The second
account located in Genesis chapter two emphasizes
the material and immaterial aspects of human
existence. Physically, Humans are made from the
earth. Their immaterial component springs from
the breath of life, from the very nostrils that
the Lord breathed into. These two accounts, they
offer no hint of sinfulness. Instead, humans
are portrayed as positive, hopeful. Humans are
more intimately related to their creator than
any other created thing. The Bible tells us that
God personally breathe into their nostrils. The
result is the image of God, right? We're created
in the image of God. But to be made in God's
image includes the fact that people possess the
power of choice. And since God has the freedom
to choose, so do humans. Since this is so, God
warned Adam to avoid the thing that would destroy
him. And we see that. In Genesis 2, 16 and 17,
where it says, Yahweh God commanded the man saying,
you may freely eat of every tree of the garden,
but you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, for in the day that you eat
of it, you will surely die. So all seems good,
right? God's creating things, Adam's naming them,
life's moving right along. But then God decides
it's not good for Adam to be alone and makes
him help me The next thing you know Eve is being
it's kind of weird like when you read the Read
this in the Bible and you look at the account
You don't really see a big time or if I should
say a lapse of time The next thing you kind of
really see or hear or read is that Eve is being
beguiled by the serpent and They're both eating
fruit of the forbidden tree One minute, everything
seems all kitschy and pink, whatever, keen, peachy,
rosy, whatever you want to say. And the next
minute, they're being evicted out of the garden.
Pretty crazy. Just an instant flip. And we read
this account. I just want to read the account
in Genesis 3, 1 to 6, where. where we see this
take place. It says, now the serpent was more
subtle than any beast of the field, which the
Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman,
yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every
tree of the garden. And the woman said unto the
serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees
of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which
is in the midst of the garden, God had said,
ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch
it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the
woman, ye shall not surely die. For God doth
know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your
eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God's,
knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw
that the tree was good for food, and that it
was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired
to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof,
and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with
her, and he did eat. And it's funny in time,
like when you, like as a young person, And it
was when I was young and a long time ago, so
forgive me. But, you know, I would sit there
and be like, Eve, man, why, like, she's to blame
for this, you know? Like, she had this fruit,
and then she gave it to the man, you know? It's
like, it seemed like Adam was doing fine. Why
did you have to give him a help meet that, you
know? But we have Marriage Matters this weekend.
I'll be straightened out. It'll be all good.
But, you know, I think... But when you really
look at it and you look at this closely, there
was choice involved, okay? So as a man, we can't
blame Eve because it says she gave. I didn't
have to take it. Adam didn't have to take it,
but he chose to do it. So you see choice here
for both of them. Same thing for Eve. She didn't
have to take it, but she listened to the devil
and she took out of her choice. It wasn't forced
upon them. And so they both exercised their freedom
of choice or power of choice to disregard the
warning from God and both suffered the consequence,
death. And I'll be honest with you, again, in
my younger, maybe ignorant, I don't know what
you want to say, but I always looked at that
death being physical. Yeah, that's why they're
going to die, you know, because now, because
they did that. But it wasn't about a physical
death it was about a spiritual death and That
happened immediately and we know it wasn't physical
because we know they went on to live for years
and have children so I Just didn't it took a
long time for me to connect with that, but I'm
good And so when we look at that there was an
immediate separation There was a great divide
that was caused and so much so that they went
missing from their daily walk with the Lord.
The Bible tells us, you know, it's like, well,
I'll just read it in chapter three, Genesis seven
through nine. It says, and the eyes of them both
were opened and they knew that they were naked
and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves
aprons. And they heard the voice of the Lord
walking in the garden in the cool of the day.
And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the
presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of
the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam
and said unto him, where art thou? See, so when
you can take from that something that there was
definitely time that was probably spent between
the Lord and Adam, and there was time. And all
of a sudden, because they did this thing that
was disobedient, now there was a separation.
But the interesting thing is that when you look
at this, God was still coming. God was still
looking. He wasn't the one that separated from
them. He's not the one that backed away. It was
them that went and hid themselves. And it's interesting
to see, because this was done a long time ago,
right? Adam and Eve was a long time ago. But
it's interesting because we do the same thing
today. We let a sin creep in. and immediately
we feel a separation from the Lord. I mean, let's
be honest. I do something wrong and I can feel
like, man, I'm not, I feel even scared to come
walk into church sometimes. I feel like I don't
deserve to be sitting here, God. I don't, you
know, I did something I shouldn't have done.
You know, those are the feelings we sometimes
feel. And so if we allow it, sometimes we'll
want to run and hide. We'll want to walk away
from the presence of God instead of turning to
the presence of God because we feel like we don't
deserve to be in the presence of God. And what
happens sometimes is it's a choice, right? We've
made a choice. Maybe it was a bad choice, but
there's always an opportunity to make a right
choice. There's always an opportunity to correct
that choice that was made. And if we don't, we
have to be careful because when we make a choice
to allow ourselves to do something that we shouldn't,
we open up an appetite. for something that we
never knew before, but now we feel like we can't
do without. And that's scary. I mean, I'm just
talking to honest opening. Let's think about
it. Like, honestly, sin is bad. We know that.
But it doesn't mean sin isn't pleasurable. It
doesn't mean that it's not pleasure to be found
in sin. And that's a scary thing, because our
flesh gets like a... gets attracted to it our
flesh can can can be appealed to do some wrong
because well it's you know it feels good you
know it it tastes good it really can't be that
bad for me right but just that little bit of
allowing something to creep in before you know
it it can become this great divide that separation
can become bigger and bigger and become this
great divide that now we can't return from But
thank God by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous Biblical references to death
are always about a kind of separation death is
not about the end of existence because every
person will exist forever and Even that statement
scares me if I'd be honest with you sometimes
Because every person will exist forever. And
where is your forever gonna be? The question
is where will we exist? Where do we want to exist?
And are we using the power of choice to help
us get where we want to go? The Garden of Eden
contained many trees, but only two had special
significance. The tree of life was there to provide
an opportunity for Adam and Eve to live forever.
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil gave
them an opportunity to exercise their freedom
of choice. So why would God plant a tree that
he didn't want them to eat from in the garden?
Why would he do that? Because it had to be a
choice. God wanted them to choose him over the
forbidden fruit. He loved them and wanted them
to love him in return. Not a forced love, not
a robotic type of love, but if it was like that
it means nothing. It's only real and it's only
meaningful when you have the power of choice
that's involved. And this just goes to show you
that the true human nature or what the true human
nature of man is Because think about it. There
were plenty of trees in the garden So there's
just one tree Just one tree and the interesting
the interesting thing is when you go back to
it. He never said Don't eat at the tree of life
God said don't either the tree of knowledge I
could not. So why not pick from the tree of life?
But it also goes to tell you that man and human
nature kind of wants that forbidden thing. The
thing you tell me I shouldn't do is kind of what
I want to do. The thing you tell me that I can't
think about, I mean, it's like with kids, right?
You tell them, no, don't do that. They do that.
So it's like, I don't know why I wasn't just
smart. Hey, why don't you do that? Maybe they
wouldn't have done it. You know, like. But anyway,
it's like but that's human nature, right? So
it's like you see this, you know, they had plenty
of options I'm sure the fruit was just as good
on this tree as it was in this tree and then
this tree in this tree They had all the options
in the world But it was the woman you gave me
Lord, that's why I did it but it was a snake
that tricked us Maybe there's a truth to some
of those statements, but Adam, you had the power
of choice. You had the power of choice. We find
excuses and ways to justify the things we do,
the choices we make, but in the end, it's truly
our choice. And 1 Corinthians 10 13 says this,
there hath no temptation taken you but such as
is common to man but God is faithful who will
not suffer you to be tempted above that you are
able but will with the temptation also make a
way to escape that you may be able to bear it
I want to read this part again who will not suffer
you to be tempted above that you are able But
will, with the temptation, also make a way to
escape? With every temptation, help provide a
way. But will we be looking for it? Are we looking
for that way out? Are we looking for that help?
Are we looking for that escape? Or are we wanting
to dwell in that? It's pretty powerful when you
think about that because we sit there and say
well, I just couldn't resist the temptation Maybe
so but I'm you had a choice I'm sure you had
another option you had something else that you
could have decided to do and It tells us straight
that he we sit there say but I just can't say
I couldn't take it I couldn't stand it. I just
couldn't deal with it. It was too much. I'm just
reading the Word of God. He won't suffer you
to be tempted above that you are able. He'll
provide a way of escape. So, look, we're gonna
fall. We're gonna make mistakes. I'm not saying
we're gonna live a perfect life. But we have
this Word of God that we can look to and that
we can trust. And no, God, you said, God, this
feels too much for me. I feel like I can't handle
it. But your word says that you won't tempt me
above that I am able. Your word says you'll provide
an escape for me. Lord, I'm going to trust your
word. I'm not going to let this overwhelm me.
I'm not going to let it overcome me because you
overcame the world. I can overcome what I'm going
through right now. Amen. Thank you, Jesus. We
thank you Jesus, we trust you Lord. So it was
after their sin that they were exiled from the
Garden of Eden and cherubims were sent to guard
the tree of life so that Adam and Eve would not
eat of it and live forever in a fallen state.
That shows you the love of God even when they
weren't his first choice. And you know, and that's
the thing again, you go back and say, well, putting
cherubims and blocking it so they can't have
it, well, at that point, it would not have been
any good for them. At that point, they were in
a fallen state, would have been living forever
like that. So God was looking out for them even
when they. didn't choose him first and it's the
same thing for us. God is continually looking
for us even when we mess up, even when we make
mistakes, even when we don't put him first. He's
still there. He doesn't go away. He's not walking
away from us. He's not turning his back on us.
He's there no matter what to continue to love
us and hope that we would turn back and love
him. The connection between sin and death is
seen in Romans 6, 23. I might have messed that
up when I gave that to you guys, sorry if I did.
But it says, for the wages of sin is death. This
is not a reference to physical death, but it's
a separation from fellowship with God as experienced
by Adam and Eve. And in Romans five, Paul explains
in a carefully worded argument the negative Impact
universal impact of Adam's sin and verse 12 says
it this way wherefore as by one man sin entered
into the world and Death by sin and so death
passed upon all men for that all have sinned
So That's exactly you know we sit there and say
look and I know I know we love our babies I know
you know and They they're so innocent when they're
born and there's absolute truth to that but unfortunately
even those babies are born into sin You know
and then so It's just it's just what happened.
That was the result That was a result and so
an interesting thing is too It's almost like,
okay, you look at that and say, well, automatically
these poor, precious ones are born into sin,
are born into this almost like separation of
life with God. But you know, that's where I think
the church comes in. That's where good parents
come in. And that's where we can show them how
to have a relationship with the Lord and show
them how God loves them and how they can turn
their lives to Him and have salvation and have,
you know, a life with God. And so the consequence
of sin upon humanity was universal. It's not
a reference to physical, as I said, but it's
more of a reference to separation from fellowship.
And Paul goes on to say in Romans 3 and 23, for
all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. You know, we hear these scriptures time
and time again. You know, we read the word of
God, or we hear it spoken in church, but... We
really have to do our due diligence to look at
scripture and really understand it. Even that
one, as simple as it seems, when you look at
how it's grammatically written, it says, not
only has every person sinned in the past, right?
Because it says, for all have sinned, which would
be a past tense, but all continually to fall
short of God's glorious. at least revelation.
So there will be a continuation of falling, right?
Continuation of falling short. No matter how
great the greatest man of God is, there's gonna
be times when he falls. There's gonna be times
where he messes up. And that's just the way it
is. But thank God we have a God that's made a
way for us to find forgiveness, right? That's
made a way for us to find a way to be with him
eternally. Thank you, Jesus. And so this is why
the blood of Jesus continually cleanses us from
sin as we walk in the light with our faith in
Jesus Christ, and that's found in 1 John. Since
sin is universal, all people need a savior. And
Paul discusses this truth in Romans and in Galatians.
And in Galatians 3, 22, we read where it says,
but the scripture hath concluded all under sin
that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might
be given to them that believe. Even before Jesus'
birth, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph
in a dream informing him of the name to be given
to Mary's son, and the reason for that name.
And we see that in Matthew 1 .21. It says, and
she shall bring forth a son, and there shall
call his name, and thou shall call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins.
Literally the name Jesus means Yahweh, Savior,
or Jehovah, Savior. He shall save First Corinthians
15 45 reads and so it is written the first man
Adam was made a living soul The last Adam was
made a quickening spirit So, you know, we're
obviously See the first natural man was Adam
And then we see what Jesus did And the last Adam
was made was made a quickening spirit, whereas
Jesus, like Adam, was a living soul. Jesus was
more than that. He was a quickening, life -giving
spirit. And so we're given a great gift. You
know, we're given that life -giving, that quickening
that we will be taken up with him when that time
comes. And so take a look at Romans 6 .23 with
me again. I know we've read that before. For
the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God
is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Notice the contrast here, wages and gift. We
earn wages by the work that we do. We don't earn
gifts. It's a gift that we've been given. We
can't earn it. There's nothing I can do to buy
what we have found. There's nothing that I can
do to purchase this. There's nothing. No money
can do it. And that's what's so awesome about
it, because you can't put a price tag on it.
It's invaluable, but yet it's accessible to everybody.
And so notice also the contrast between death
and eternal life. The consequence of sinful behavior
is basically, like I've been saying, separation
from fellowship with God. Eternal life is life
forever in God's presence, which is a gift from
God. And as Peter said on the Day of Pentecost,
the Holy Ghost is a gift. It's a gift. We can't
do anything to, like I said, buy it. There's
really no money in the world, but it's about
knowing Jesus Christ. It's about coming to know
Him and allowing Him to move in our lives. When
we look at, musicians can make their way forward.
When we look at this, like we look at, like say
Bill Dross in the beginning that I was reading
about his life, he was facing a lot of opposition,
obviously, with the things that I said about
his parents not feeling good about it, his mom
telling him over my dead body, and those people
are the devil. I forbid you to talk to him, all
that stuff that I was talking about. There was
obviously some great opposition. And I would
look at it as he really had a choice to make.
And it was awesome that he made a choice to ask
God what he should do. He made a choice to look
at what the word of God says and realize, man,
that lines up with what those people are doing.
And that's, I think I was gonna say, that onus
is on us too, to know the word of God. And when
we're going through situations and we're going
through things, it's on us. The choices that
we make, the thing that we decide to do when
the challenges come, when the struggles are hitting
us hard, it's our choice. It's that power of
choice. What are we gonna do? things the world
does? Am I gonna act or react the way the world
does? Or am I gonna say, God, I don't know what
to do, but I'm gonna look to you to help me out.
I'm gonna look to your word to see what it says.
God, I'm gonna look for you to give me some encouragement,
to show me the way, to show me what I should
do, because that's what's gonna lead us to the
right choice. I was having a conversation with
my son just last night about how amazed I am
by people who choose to be different than what
they've grown up around. They don't let the surroundings
or environment they lived in dictate who they
are or who they're gonna be. And that's pretty
powerful to do that. Because I mean, let's be
honest, you know, I know even me right now this
day. There's sometimes things I do and I'm like
man That's because my dad did that you know,
that's cuz my mom did that whatever it may be
and You know, it's funny when you have children
you have kids. I think something happened even
last night. My wife's like That's you right there.
That's you You know, it's pointing at something
Jake was doing but you know, it's just it's funny
That's you know what we're around is kind of
sometimes what we'll do But I think that's why
we have to really believe in the power of choice.
I mean, obviously, it's the power of the Holy
Ghost that worketh in me, that worketh in you.
But we still choose whether we're going to listen
to it or not. We still choose as to whether I'm
going to really read this word or not. We choose
whether I'm going to pray today or not. I'm gonna
have some relationship with God today or not.
That's power of choice. That's on us. And I do
really applaud those that have found a way to
step out from what they have always known. And
it was funny, because even having a conversation
with my daughter the other day, and she was like,
man, I... I wonder what it would be like, because
thankfully for her, this is all she's ever known.
And she was like, I wonder what it's like for
people to walk in to church, never having any
experience, never having any exposure to it.
What does it feel like for them? And I was like,
I know it's kind of, and I'm not, don't take
this wrong. I said, it's almost like we could
be desensitized to how... Great the power of
God is when we walk into this sanctuary We can
always be desensitized to because we just take
it for granted we experience it week in and week
out You know and there's people that have never
Experienced this and I don't keep me to keep
going back to my own experiences, but even just
today I was speaking to one of my co -workers
who had come to one of our concerts and It's
kind of cool because now there's been such an
openness now with some of my co -workers about
just speaking about God. Even the situation with
Bella was amazing as I was telling about things
that were going on and just some of the little
miracles that we were having and some of them
were sitting like as I'm telling them it one
girl's tearing another girl's like oh my goodness
my arms are like goosebumps all over like you
know it's so cool and I thank God for that I
thank God for the for the privilege and the opportunity
to be able to speak to them but the one young
man I was talking to today was like saying to
me hey he's like he actually brought it up he
said hey he's like I must be on the same algorithm
or whatever because he's like a reel from your
church came up with my thing it's like your pastor
like You know, is that what you call him, pastor,
minister? I was like, yeah, pastor's good. And
he was like, yeah, he was standing in the snow
or something, and he was talking about some other
guy. And he's like, it was kind of cool. It was
kind of funny. He's like, I've never, like even
coming to the concert, I've never saw ministers
or pastors act like that. Everything I knew was
always so serious, he said. It was almost unrelatable.
But he said, but I feel like the couple of times
that I've seen your pastor now, it seems so relatable.
It seems like I can probably really learn from
that. And so I said, you can, man. When you coming?
You gotta come back. And so he said, I'm gonna
come. And when they had come to the concert,
they told me that their mother has... His girlfriend's
mother has been looking for a church. She lives
right here in Louisville. I'm like, we're close
enough, man. Come on, you gotta give it a try.
So today's conversation, hopefully, they'll be
coming to visit. But I'm just thankful that God
is moving, God is working. And for many of us,
we've known this saving message, this gospel
saving message for a long time. But to others,
it may be the first time. For others coming through
that door maybe the first time that they ever
walk into a place like this that they ever hear
Of a God that wants such a relationship with
them and that's what Andrew and I were talking
about today I said man the difference is and
I said I'm just Talking to you because I've been
around it long enough. I did after I Made my
confirmation and Catholicism. So I lived enough
to take those kind of classes and be in that
type of surrounding And I said, and that's what
he was talking to me about. And I said, yeah.
I said, but the difference that I've experienced
is that this is not just something I go to and
then walk away. This is something we live every
day. It's a relationship, a living relationship.
And I said, that's the difference about what
I believe. And I said, so it's something that
becomes a part of your life. It's a way of living.
And it's just so much more alive and real. I
don't know how else to explain it to you right
now, you know, but that's really what it is.
So to those who may be here for the first time
or listening online for the first time, there's
something here for you. God has more for you.
God wants to have relationship with you. God
wants to give you the gift of His Holy Spirit.
And for those of us that have been living in
this thing for a long time, the choice is still
ours to keep on living. The power of choice is
still ours to keep on moving forward, to keep
on doing what we know to do, and to keep choosing
Him first, loving Him more than anyone else,
loving Him more than anything else, and putting
Him first. Because let's be honest, when you're,
how can I say it? Anything new sometimes becomes
dull. You know? The new car becomes dull after
a while. The new motorcycle just becomes old
after a while. You know? Things can just become...
But we have to choose to not let this thing ever
get old. To not let this thing ever fade. To
not let this truth ever become irrelevant. Because
this will save our life. Save our families and
save those around us. If you'll stand with me,
I want to invite you to this altar. The choice
to be obedient to His word and to follow after
Him, that's on us. The choice to be in complete
surrender, holding nothing back, that's on us.
We've been given the power of choice. What choice?
will you make God we thank you for your presence
we thank you Jesus for your holy spirit God we
thank you Lord that you've given us that power
of choice we thank you Jesus that you made a
way for us to have eternal life God we thank
you Jesus that you've given yourself for us that
we could find forgiveness Lord God we could find
your precious spirit, that you've given us that
quickening spirit.