Curry's Chapel Church
20260823 - 5 - Choose Life
  • | Week 5: Deuteronomy | Covenant Response 
    SLIDE
    Joshua 24:15 ESV
    15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond 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.”
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    Opening:

    Internet Intro 
    Let me begin with a picture that most of us understand without needing much explanation. There are moments in life when you realize you are standing at a crossroads. Not a small decision. Not something you can shrug off and clean up later. Not one of those moments where you say, “Well, I’ll see how it goes,” and expect everything to work itself out. I mean the kind of moment where you can feel the weight of direction before you even move. 
    A choice about where life is headed. A choice about what matters most. A choice about what kind of person you are becoming. And the unsettling thing about crossroads is that you cannot stay there forever. Eventually, standing still becomes its own kind of decision. 
    Object lesson: Place a small road sign image where the room can see it. Use it as a quiet visual thread: direction is always being chosen. 
    Deuteronomy 30 is that moment. Israel is no longer at the beginning of the journey. They are not trapped in Egypt. They are not standing with water on both sides wondering whether God can make a way. They are not even in the early confusion of wilderness life anymore. They have walked through decades of dependence, failure, correction, mercy, discipline, provision, and grace. They know what it is to disobey. They know what it is to be sustained anyway. They know what it is to be a people shaped by both the holiness and kindness of God. 
    And now they stand within sight of promise. 
    And God does something deeply loving. He does not blur the categories. He does not wrap the truth in vague language. He says, in essence, I am setting this before you plainly: life and death, blessing and curse. And then He says something even more stunning: choose life. 
    There is mercy in that kind of clarity. Because clarity means God is not playing games with His people. Clarity means He loves them enough to tell them where the road leads. Clarity means that when the moment of decision arrives, they are not left to guess what faithfulness looks like. 
    Read slowly: Read Deuteronomy 30:19–20. Emphasize “choose life” and “holding fast.” Pause once after “life and death.” 
    Deuteronomy 30:19-20 says, “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, [ Pause ] blessing and curse. Therefore choose life ... loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him.” 
    Choose life. Love the Lord. Obey His voice. Hold fast to Him. That is the shape of covenant response. 
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    Main Teaching

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    Point 1: God Brings Us to Moments of Clarity 

    One of the most striking things in this passage is how direct it is. God does not leave Israel confused about what is in front of them. He does not blur the categories. He does not say, “There are many paths, and all of them are equally safe if your motives are sincere.” No. He says plainly: this is life, and this is death. This is blessing, and this is curse. 
    That kind of clarity can feel uncomfortable to modern ears because we prefer room to negotiate. We like gray areas. We like options. We like the feeling that we can delay obedience without really choosing disobedience. But one of the great mercies of God is that He refuses to let His people confuse drift with faithfulness. 
    He loves His people too much for that. So He names the road. 
    Object lesson: Point to the road sign/crossroads image and say, “A loving sign does not remove freedom. It tells you where the road goes.” 
    And the same thing happens in our lives more often than we admit. There are moments where God, through His Word, through conviction, through the accumulated pressure of truth, brings us to a place where we know what obedience looks like. It may not be easy. It may not be convenient. It may not be emotionally painless. But it is clear. 
    And in those moments, the deepest danger is not ignorance. The deepest danger is delay. 
    Delay sounds harmless because it does not feel as dramatic as open rebellion. But delayed obedience has a way of training the heart to become comfortable with compromise. We begin by postponing and end by drifting. We begin by saying, “Not now,” and end by saying, “Not really.” 
    That is one reason Deuteronomy matters so much. It reminds us that love tells the truth clearly. God is not harsh when He says “life and death.” He is kind. A surgeon who names the diagnosis is not cruel. A shepherd who warns about the cliff is not restrictive. A father who says, “Don’t play in the road,” is not overbearing. Clarity is compassion. 
    SLIDE - Check Engine Light
    Illustration: Use the dashboard warning light inside this point as an explanation of mercy, not as a detached example. 
    Think about a warning light on a dashboard. [ Point to the slide ] It’s not there to ruin your day. It’s not there because your vehicle has emotional issues. It is there because something needs attention. The danger is not the light. The danger is pretending the light is optional information. If you ignore it long enough, what could have been dealt with early becomes something much more expensive later. 
    Some people treat spiritual warning signs the way people treat the check engine light: “If I put a piece of tape over it, that’s basically resolution.” It’s not. Covering the light does not fix the engine, and ignoring conviction does not produce obedience. 
    Delivery cue: After repeating Deuteronomy 30:19, say, “Clarity is mercy.” Then pause. 
    Deuteronomy 30:19-20 says, “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, [ Pause ] blessing and curse. Therefore choose life ... loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him.” 
    Clarity is mercy. [ pause ]
    God brings us to moments of clarity because He loves us. He names the road because direction matters. And when God says, “choose life,” He is not merely giving an order. He is inviting His people to stop pretending that death can lead anywhere good. 
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    Point 2: Choosing Life Means Loving God More Than You Love Ease 

    Now notice how God defines life in this passage. He does not define it as comfort. He does not define it as ease. He does not define it as circumstances finally turning in your favor. He defines it relationally: loving the LORD your God, obeying His voice, and holding fast to Him. 
    That changes everything.
    Because it means life is not merely what God gives you. Life is found in how you relate to God Himself. Life is not finally a package of emotional outcomes. Life is communion. Life is trust. Life is closeness. Life is the settled decision that there is nowhere else to go because no one else has life.  And we express that decision through acceptance of Jesus and witness to that through Baptism.
    That is exactly the note Peter lands on in John 6:68. When many turn away from Jesus, Jesus asks the twelve if they want to leave too.
    Delivery cue: Emphasize “to whom shall we go?” Let it sound like settled dependence, not religious slogan. 
    Peter answers, “ Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” That is what choosing life sounds like. It sounds like a heart that has stopped pretending there is a better source somewhere else. 
    And yet this is where many people struggle. Because we often want the gifts of God without the voice of God. We want blessing without obedience. We want security without surrender. We want peace without holding fast. But the text will not let us separate those things. Life is not merely God making circumstances easier. Life is found in loving Him, obeying Him, and clinging to Him. 
    That phrase “holding fast” is especially important. It is not loose. It is not casual. It is not “check in when needed.” It is tenacious. It is what a drowning person does with a rope. It is what a climber does with a fixed line. It is what a tired saint does with the promises of God when emotions are thin and circumstances are loud. 
    SLIDE - Swept Away
    Illustration: Use the rope/current illustration Imagine being in a strong current, holding onto a rope stretched from one side to the other. If your grip is loose and casual, the current will eventually do what currents do. It will pull you away. But if your grip is firm, the current may still be strong and the water may still be cold, yet you remain anchored because of what you are holding. 
    Some of us try to hold onto God with the spiritual equivalent of two fingers and a shrug, and then wonder why the current keeps dragging us toward the bank we said we didn’t want. While that is a funny image, it is also a painful one. Casual attachment will not hold up well in a strong current. 
    Sometimes the choice between life and death is not a dramatic public moment. Sometimes it looks like this: I am going to hold onto the voice of God even when an easier voice is calling me. I am going to obey what is clear even when compromise would feel more comfortable. I am going to stay near the Lord even when every part of me wants immediate relief, more than deep faithfulness. 
    That is why choosing life often feels costly at first. You are not merely choosing the pleasant path. You are choosing the true one. 
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    Point 3: The Battle Is Usually Between Walking and Drifting 

    This is where the passage gets painfully practical. Choosing life is not always a dramatic, mountaintop decision. Most of the time it looks like walking instead of drifting. 
    Paul says in Galatians 5:16, “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” The word matters. Walk. It suggests direction, movement, intention, repetition. Walking assumes a thousand small steps that all add up to a path. 
    And that is important because spiritual drifting rarely announces itself with a trumpet blast. No one usually says, “Today I intend to become spiritually dull.” Instead, a person neglects prayer a little, excuses compromise a little, postpones obedience a little, feeds resentment a little, stops listening with seriousness a little. Nothing dramatic. Nothing that feels like rebellion in neon lights. Just drift. 
    And drift always moves somewhere. 
    SLIDE - Drifting Boat
    Illustration: Use the quiet-current boat illustration here: Think about a boat in a quiet current. If it has no anchor and no one is rowing, it doesn’t stay put. It moves. The motion may be slow enough that it feels invisible at first. But an hour later the boat is nowhere near where it began. That is how drifting works spiritually. It feels harmless in the moment, but it carries you farther than you intended. 
    Some people say, “I don’t know how I ended up here spiritually.” But if you trace it back carefully, it is usually not one giant leap. It is a thousand lazy floaters. A thousand small moments where nobody was rowing toward life. 
    That is why the call to choose life is not merely a call for one big public moment. It is a call to keep choosing the direction that leads toward God. To keep choosing truth over convenience. Obedience over delay. Prayer over avoidance. Confession over cover-up. Softness over cynicism. 
    Nobody drifts into holiness. Nobody drifts into depth. Nobody drifts into intimacy with God. You drift into distance. Walk, don’t drift. [ pause ] Walk, don’t drift.
    That is such an important distinction because a lot of believers are not making one catastrophic choice against God. They are simply drifting by neglect. They are not clenching their fist at heaven. They are just letting go of the rope a finger at a time. Eventually the distance becomes obvious. 
    But there is also a quiet accumulation to faithfulness. Just as drifting happens by a thousand tiny compromises, walking happens by a thousand ordinary obediences. The prayer you almost skipped. The truth you almost softened. The phone call you needed to make. The apology you needed to offer. The temptation you needed to resist. The Scripture you needed to obey when no one else was watching. Small steps still set a real direction. 
    Psalm 1:1-3 gives that picture beautifully. ”The blessed person does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of scoffers. Instead, his delight is in the law of the LORD, and he is like a tree planted by streams of water.” That is not accidental fruitfulness. That is rooted life. That is a life receiving from the right source day after day. 
    Over time, those little steps become a life. They become habits, then character, then witness. People are rarely shaped in one dramatic afternoon. They are shaped in ordinary days where direction is chosen again and again. That is why the call to choose life is not a single emotional spike. It is a sustained way of living under the voice of God. 
    SLIDE

    Closing: Choose Life Today 

    So here is the question this passage leaves sitting in front of us: Where is God calling you to choose life? 
    Not in theory. In practice. 
    What has God made clear that you have been delaying? What direction has He pointed to that you have been drifting away from? Where have you been hoping that indecision would somehow turn into faithfulness on its own? 
    Object lesson: Point to the crossroads sign/compass. Say, “Standing still at the crossroads cannot last forever. Direction will eventually be chosen.” 
    Because this moment is not about guilt. It is about clarity. “I have set before you life and death… therefore choose life.” 
    That word is not only for Israel. It meets us here. It meets us in habits. It meets us in relationships. It meets us in obedience. It meets us in the quiet places where the heart knows exactly what direction it has been taking. 
    So choose life. Choose to love Him. Choose to listen. Choose to hold fast. Choose to walk instead of drift. And then, by grace, choose it again tomorrow. 
    Clarity is mercy. The rope is there. The road is named. The Spirit is calling. Christ is not merely offering a better lifestyle; He is life. So don’t drift past what God has made clear. Choose life today. 
    Invitation: Now some of you may be feeling the weight of this message today. You may feel you have drifted away. If that is true for you: Then today you have the perfect opportunity to get back on the right path. Accept Jesus Christ's invitation to life. And then demonstrate that decision of acceptance by getting Baptized today. Join us at Strubbe’s Lake and be Baptized either for the first time or for renewal.
    Again I say to you friends: Clarity is mercy. The rope is there. The road is named. The Spirit is calling. Christ is not merely offering a better lifestyle; He is life. So don’t drift past what God has made clear. Choose life today. 
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    Closing Prayer 

    Let us pray:
    Father, Thank You for making the path clear. Thank You that You do not leave us in confusion but call us into life. Help us choose You, not just once, but daily. Strengthen our hearts to hold fast, to obey, and to walk with You. Keep us from drifting. Lead us into life. In Jesus’ name, Amen. 

      • Joshua 24:15NLT

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