I. Introduction:
A. Historical events make for an interesting study. What caused certain
events to change the course of history? Why did certain people make the
choices they did? What would have taken place had they made different
choices?
1. I have studied my family history, which is very interesting, just as
all family histories are very interesting.
2. The choices that my early forefathers made had a direct bearing on
my family and me today.
3. They literally changed the course of history for the Huey and
Reynolds families.
B. Illustration:
1. Many years ago a study was made on two families that
lived about the same time.
2. Jonathan Edwards was a well-known preacher in the
early American Colonies. Out of 729 of his descendants, 300 were
preachers, 65 were college professors, 13 were university presidents, 16
were authors, 3 were U.S. congressmen, and one was a Vice-President of the
United States. None of Jonathan Edwards' family ever received any money
from state institutions for the needy. Max Jukes lived at about the same
time as Edwards.
3. Max Jukes never cared about God, never believed in
God, and never shared God with his family. Out of 1,020 descendants, 300
died prematurely, 100 entered penitentiaries for an average sentence of 13
years each, 190 were prostitutes, and 100 were drunkards. They cost the
state an estimated $1,200,000, at a time when the dollar was worth far
more than it is now.
C. Our text tells us that we have a loving, forgiving God, who is willing
to pardon us and give us a life that is filled with abundant blessings, but
it also warns us that the sins and choices we make can change the course of
history, as did the choices of Jonathan Edwards and Max Jukes.
II. What choices are you making? Are they based upon what God would have
you do or are they based upon what you want to do? Will they have a positive
or negative affect upon your children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren?
A. THE CHOICES YOU MAKE IN THE REALM OF THE SPIRITUAL CAN CHANGE
THE COURSE OF HISTORY.
1. Deuteronomy 6:1-15
2. Do you believe in God?
3. Are you saved?
4. Are you teaching your children spiritual values?
5. Are you hypocritical in your spirituality?
6. Remember the contrast between Jonathan Edwards and Max Jukes!
B. THE CHOICES YOU MAKE IN THE REALM OF THE PHYSICAL CAN CHANGE
THE COURSE OF HISTORY.
1. Luke 12:16-31
2. Many people, even many children of God, are in love with, and serve,
the dollar more than they do God.
3. They have convinced themselves that money will solve all their
problems, so they work and work, ignoring their marriages, their families
and God, only to find one day that they have not gained, but have lost.
4. When our emphasis is on money, we are teaching our children that God
doesn't matter, that we really don't have time for Him, and the children
become even less spiritual than the fathers and mothers.
5. God, who cannot lie, has promised to meet all our needs. The problem
is that what we think are our needs are not what God necessarily thinks
are our needs.
C. THE CHOICES YOU MAKE IN THE REALM OF RELATIONSHIPS CAN CHANGE
THE COURSE OF HISTORY.
1. II Corinthians 6:14-18
2. I don't know how many times I have heard children of God express
regret over marrying an unbeliever.
3. I have also heard a number of times how a child of God regretted
having sex and getting pregnant before marriage, or fathering a child
before marriage.
4. As children of the Most High, having a God who desires the best for
us, many times we have settled for second or third or fourth best because
we failed to include God in seeking out relationships.
5. When believers and unbelievers become involved in relationships, the
vast majority of the time, the believer will go away from God. The course
of history will be changed.
D. THE CHOICES YOU MAKE IN THE REALM OF LIFE AND DEATH CAN CHANGE
THE COURSE OF HISTORY.
1. Deuteronomy 30:19 – I call heaven and earth as witnesses
today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and
cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may
live...
2. Life and death! Those two words are profound. Most tend to enjoy
life and detest the thought of dying, yet there are some who detest life
to the point of choosing death.
3. Illustration: If my earliest forefather had chosen to jump in the
river and drown himself, I wouldn't be here today and you wouldn't be
hearing this message.
4. The ability to choose life or death doesn't affect just the person
making the choice; it will affect others for generations to come.
5. That is why God gives you the ability to choose life over death. He
is not really talking about the physical, but about the spiritual. The
ability to choose Jesus and be saved, or the ability to choose to reject
Jesus and be lost and doomed forever.
6. The choice you make concerning Jesus, the Savior, will affect you
and future generations, even to the third and fourth generations!
7. May you have enough love for yourself, and others of your family who
will follow, to change the course of history and make the choice to
receive Jesus as your Savior and to serve Him totally.
8. May you make the same decision that Joshua did that day when he
stood before Israel and challenged them to change the course of Israel's
history.
9. Joshua 24:15 – And if it seems evil to you to serve the
Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods
which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the
gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house,
we will serve the Lord.