IDENTITY THEFT
CHEATED BY CHOICE
DR. JIM DIXON
JULY 8, 2007
DEUTERONOMY 30:19
“Choose ye this day whom ye will serve.” Those words, recorded in Joshua 24:15, were spoken by Joshua to the children of Israel 3,000 years ago. “Choose ye this day whom ye will serve.” Choose foreign gods or choose the one true God—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Choose the path of righteousness or choose the way of sin . . . but choose. In Deuteronomy 30:19, our passage for today, God says to His people, “I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore, choose life. Choose life that you and your descendants may live.” Choose.
So, we come this morning to the subject of choice. Some of our choices have eternal consequences. Some of our choices have less import, but they still affect our daily lives. We look at choices this morning and what it means to be “cheated by our choices.” Perhaps some of you in this room feel today that you have been cheated by choices you’ve made. Or perhaps you feel cheated by choices others have made. Some of you who belong to Christ and confess Christ may be losing your identity somewhat because of choices that have been made.
This is a controversial subject today because we live in a world where there are many deterministic philosophies. Some people have bought into deterministic psychology, such as “Skinarianism” from B.F. Skinner. Skinarianism teaches that choice is an illusion, that the decisions we make are simply the inevitable result of stimulus-response reinforcement. It teaches that free moral agency is an illusion—that the will, volition itself, is illusional.
There are some people in the world who buy into deterministic theologies. Some people are Hyper-Calvinists. They debate the intricacies of supralapsarianism and infralapsarianism. They’re double-predestinarian. They believe that we’re just puppets on a string, that God is pulling the strings, and that He’s going to pull some people into heaven and pull other people into hell. They believe that you really don’t have anything to say about it and that God has scripted your life. He is writing your book, and your free will is an illusion. Hyper-Calvinists.
Of course, debate with regard to the sovereignty of God and the free will of men will never be solved in this age of the world. There’s a mystery as to how God’s sovereignty and our freedom mixes. My assumption is that most of you have a balanced perspective. You recognize that God, in His sovereignty, has granted a certain measure of free will to us and that our free will is significant even in our fallen condition. We’re able to make choices, and we’re held accountable by God for choices we make. We’re culpable. My assumption is that you would agree with that. So, this morning, as we look at the topic “cheated by choice,” I have two teachings. The first teaching concerns bad choices.
Perhaps in the course of your life, you’ve made some bad choices. I know in the course of my life, I’ve made some bad choices. There’s an old story about a guy who always made bad choices. When his grandparents died, he inherited millions of dollars. He thought to himself, “I’ve got to start making good choices now. I’ve got all this money, and I need to be responsible. I can’t continue to make bad choices. I’ve got to turn it around. I want to make good choices in the way that I invest my money.” He thought home video was kind of on the rise at the time. He thought, “Maybe I’ll invest in home video technologies.” There were BETA technologies and VHS technologies. He chose to invest in BETA. Of course, BETA lost its market shares, and VHS had rising market shares. Ultimately, BETA went under. It was a bad choice, and this guy lost half of his inheritance, half of his money. He was devastated. He thought, “Man, I can’t continue to make bad choices. I’ve got to do better than this.”
He thought about Latin America and some of the possibilities for investing in Latin America. He thought about bananas. He did a little research. He knew that banana crops were huge in the United States of America. Eleven billion bananas are consumed every year, and 90% of those bananas come from Brazil, Colombia, and Ecuador. He thought that perhaps this would be a good area to invest. But then he thought about coffee beans because Latin America also has coffee beans. This is a huge industry. He also knew that the United States consumes one fifth of all the coffee in the world. He knew that much of that coffee is grown in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and other places in Latin America. So, he thought maybe he should invest in coffee. He struggled with the decision, but finally, he chose bananas.
It was a bad decision because, of course, coffee just took off. He began to see coffee houses in nations all over the world, and he began to see the rise of Starbucks. The value of coffee just rose, and bananas kind of went the other way. The Panama bug began to destroy banana crops and the harvest. Bananas began to be less popular because of the low carb diets that were popular in the West. Even good carbs were being rejected, so banana consumption decreased. He wound up losing everything. Then he had nothing.
He was down in Latin America because he wanted to be close to his investments, but now he just wanted to get home. He had just enough money to fly back to the United States. He thought, “I can take a conventional airline, or maybe I could save a little money and go on this airline called ‘Top of the Andes.’” He chose Top of the Andes, and it was a bad choice. He got on the plane. It was a little plane, just a twin-engine Piper Aztec. There was only one other passenger in addition to himself. In the course of the flight, one engine went out and the other engine began to struggle. The pilot told them where the parachutes were, and he chose the parachute on the right. It was a bad choice. As he pulled the ripcord as he was flying through the air, nothing happened. He cried out in desperation as a good Catholic, “St. Francis, save me!” This divine hand just came out of heaven and just grabbed him in mid-air. Then a voice, a heavenly voice, said, “St. Francis Xavier or St. Francis of Assisi?”
It’s an old joke, but maybe you feel a little bit like that. Life is filled with choices every day. Every day you have to make many choices, and maybe you feel, as you look back on your life, that you’ve just made a lot of bad choices. Maybe you just feel like bad choices have kind of characterized your life. Maybe you feel cheated by some of the choices you’ve made.
When Barb and I first moved to Colorado about 34 years ago, we lived out in Aurora. Sometimes, we would go to the Aurora Mall, and we’d shop at Montgomery Wards. We bought a barbecue grill there. We bought a lawnmower there. We bought various products at Montgomery Wards, including a washer and dryer. In the course of time, Montgomery Wards just shut down. You may have noticed that there are no Montgomery Wards anymore. You can’t find them anywhere because they’ve gone bankrupt. There are some people who look back on Montgomery Wards, and they trace it all to a man name Sewell Avery.
Sewell Avery was chairman of the board of Montgomery Ward and Co. from 1941 to 1957. Sewell Avery was the man who made the decision that Montgomery Ward would not expand, that they would not build additional stores. He had studied history, and he had concluded that, from the time of Napoleon, every war had resulted in depression. He believed that World War II would result in depression, so he resolved just to maintain and to not expand. So, from 1941 to 1957, Montgomery Ward did not build a single additional store. This was the decision of Sewell Avery. They just took in money, but they never sought to grow the number of stores. They wound up accumulating almost a billion dollars in cash. Wall Street began to refer to Montgomery Ward as “a bank with a department storefront.” But Montgomery Ward was short-sighted. Their primary rival, Sears, Roebuck and Co., began to expand in the post-war years out into the suburbs. They began to build additional stores. They began to grow their revenue, double and triple.
By 1957, when Montgomery Ward finally made the decision to build a new store, it was too little too late. They survived for a few more decades, but they were never able to catch up. Eventually, they went bankrupt. In the view of some, it was because of a bad decision made by Sewell Avery.
You might look back on your life financially and think you’ve made a lot of bad decisions. I know in my life, I’ve made some bad decisions financially. You can look at your life and you might think, “Well, I don’t know how I’m going to be able to retire.” Maybe you wonder if you’re ever going to be able to retire because of bad decisions made. You might look at your life and think, “How am I going to pay for my kids’ education because of the bad decisions I’ve made?” Maybe you wonder how you’re going to afford health care. Maybe you wonder how you’re going to make your house payments or how you’re going to be able to afford a car. Maybe you’ve made bad decisions in the area of finances and you feel kind of cheated, particularly when you look at other people who seem to be doing so well. Maybe you feel kind of cheated by the choices that you’ve made.
God understands the emotion of how you feel, but God would also want you to know that His grace is sufficient for you. God would remind us, and He does remind us in His Word that there are a lot of things in life more important than money. The Bible says, “We brought nothing into this world, and we can take nothing out of this world. If we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.” The Bible says, “The love of money is the root of all evil.” Jesus said, “Do not be anxious about your life, what you should eat or drink or wear. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all of these things will be yours as well.”
Maybe you’ve made some bad choices in the area of finances and you’re worried. God certainly has grace and mercy for you. I’m not saying we shouldn’t be good stewards of our money. I’m not saying we shouldn’t seek to have better lifestyle choices and better practices with regard to what we buy and what we spend. But I am saying that money is not the most important thing.
Some of you have heard of Friedrich Flick. Friedrich Flick was a West German industrialist. He died shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Herr Friedrich Flick was very wealthy when he died. When he died, his estate was valued at $1,500,000,000. Friedrich Flick owned all or part of three hundred different companies. This man was incredibly successful. It wasn’t that he came up with new products. It wasn’t that he had revolutionary creative ideas. He was just great at putting mergers together and combining companies. He always seemed to make the right choices. He was great at merging companies. The irony was that Friedrich Flick couldn’t bring his family together.
The truth was that he had made the decision very early in his married life to devalue family. Historians tell us that he made the decision early in his life to de-emphasize the role of his family. He made the choice to pour almost all of his passion, energy, time, and talent into the pursuit of money and wealth. Because of that choice, he accrued vast amounts of money; but his family suffered, and his kids were just disasters. No one could put the broken shattered pieces of their lives back together. They were like Humpty Dumpty. All the King’s horses and all the King’s men could not put their lives back together again.
Friedrich Flick really never cared that much. He just cared about the building of his empire and the pursuit of his wealth. When his wife died in 1966 at 3:00 in the afternoon, he was back in his office by 5:00 that same afternoon grinding away, making more money. He had made a choice. By that choice, he acquired vast wealth; and by that choice, his family suffered.
I don’t know what choices you’ve made through the course of your life. If you’re in touch at all with the soul of God, you know that God values relationships more than wealth. If, in your life, there’s any sense in which you valued wealth more than relationships, you’ve done something very contrary to the heart of God. It’s possible, this morning, that some of us in this room need to change. We need to make a new choice or even repent—because God cares about our relationships.
I promise you, if you don’t have the money to pay for your kids’ education and your kids’ college . . . I mean, I know that’s hard; but it’s more important for your kid to have a relationship with you than it is to go to this wonderful college. It’s more important for your child to have a relationship with Jesus Christ and for you to be nurturing your children in the Lord. Relationships are far more important. Choose your kids. Choose your spouse. Choose your family, and choose your friends. Be servant-hearted toward them. Make that choice, and make that your treasure. I think that’s closer to the heart of God.
Some of you might be thinking, “Well, I feel like I made a bad choice with regard to my spouse. Now I’m cheated.” Maybe your spouse feels like they made a bad choice with regard to you and they feel cheated. If you’re a follower of Jesus, He calls you to faithfulness with the promise of blessing. Maybe your wife or your husband has left you. Maybe they cheated on you and you feel cheated. Maybe they committed adultery. Keep following Christ. Jesus will not fail you or forsake you. Don’t lose your identity. Don’t lose your identity in Christ.
Of course, there are choices we make that can have life and death consequences. I’m not a follower of NASCAR. My oldest brother Gary follows NASCAR and enjoys automobile racing. I’m kind of a football, baseball, and basketball guy. My wife has told me that I really can’t afford another sport anyway. I’m sure that’s true. I do know that on February 18, 2001, Dale Earnhardt Sr. died. He died to the great loss of NASCAR. He was a very popular and very successful driver. He died in the Daytona 500. He was running in third place at the time. He was nudged in the back of his car, and he ran into a wall at 180 miles per hour. The autopsy for Dale Earnhardt Sr. revealed that he would have lived if he’d been wearing a HANS (head and neck safety system). Some drivers in NASCAR choose to wear the head and neck safety system. Some choose not to. If Dale Earnhardt had chosen to wear that system that day, he would probably be alive today. Bad choice.
Of course, we’re talking about physical life. What about the soul? We can make bad choices with regard to our souls, and there can be eternal consequences. Jesus said, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world but forfeit his soul?”
How’s it going with your soul today? What choices have you made? In “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” the Nazi villain chooses a beautiful, golden cup that he believes is the Holy Grail; but he drinks from it and dies immediately. Then, Indiana Jones chooses a simple wooden cup, a carpenter’s cup; he drinks from it and is fine. Then the Grail Knight who guards the Holy Grail says that famous line, “You have chosen wisely.”
Well, Steven Spielberg, who produced “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” had it wrong. Harrison Ford and Sean Connery, who acted in the movie, also had it wrong. Whoever wrote the script had it wrong—because eternal life does not come from the Holy Grail. Eternal life does not come from the cup of Christ used at the Last Supper. You see, eternal life comes from Christ Himself. Eternal life comes from Jesus. He said, “I am the Way. I am the Truth. I am the Life. I have come that you might have life, that you might have it abundantly. He who has the Son has life. He who has not the Son of God has not life.”
There’s no choice you could make that’s more important than what to do with Jesus. Jesus chose us. He came into our world. He shared our flesh. He died for us. He rose for us. He lives for us, and He’s commanded that His gospel go to the corners of the earth. What choice have you made with regard to that gospel? If you reject Christ, that’s the worst bad decision you can possibly make, and there are eternal consequences for the soul.
This morning, there is a second teaching. I want to spend a few moments on the good choices relating to Christ. I think it is true that even people who choose Christ and respond to the gospel sometimes feel cheated in the short term.
Many of you know that in the year 49 BC, Julius Caesar came to the Rubicon. He came to that stream that divided his provinces from the land of Italy and from the city of Rome. He came with 5,000 soldiers at his back. He knew that if he led that army across the Rubicon, he was choosing to go to war with Rome. It was a hard decision. Julius Caesar, just eleven years earlier, had formed the first Triumvirate with Crassus and Pompey. But Crassus had died. Now, Pompey was the enemy of Julius Caesar. General Pompey, who had accomplished so much and had attained such fame, had become jealous of Julius Caesar because Julius Caesar had won incredible victories in France and the region that was then called Gaul. He won amazing victories as far away as England, and he had come home and made triumphal entries into the city of Rome.
Pompey hated Caesar for this. So, Pompey formed his armies against Caesar, and he began to rally portions of the senate and the high leadership in Rome against Caesar. Caesar knew he would have to fight. He brought his armies across the Rubicon that day. That was the choice he made. Of course, he conquered Pompey. Pompey fled to Egypt. Caesar chased him there, met Cleopatra, and the rest is history.
Julius Caesar rose to supreme power over the Roman world. He influenced Roman culture and Roman thinking. He influenced an empire. Ultimately, Julius Caesar was assassinated by a rebellious movement led by Marcus Junius Brutus. That’s why in William Shakespeare’s play “Julius Caesar,” the last words attributed to Caesar are “Et tu, Brute?”—spoken as Brutus assassinated Caesar.
You look back, and you say, “Well, did he make a good choice or a bad choice when he crossed the Rubicon?” He rose to ascendancy over an empire; but just five years later, he was assassinated. So, was that a good choice or was that a bad choice? We can leave it to historians to debate that. You can look back on your life (and I know I can look back on my life), and you can see some choices you’ve made; and, honestly, you may not know whether they were good or bad. Am I right? You just don’t know. You can see an upside. You can see a downside. You’re not sure.
I think even for those who choose Christ, there might be moments of doubt. There might be moments when you choose Christ and you feel like you’ve been cheated. Have you ever felt like that? Have you ever felt like the path of righteousness is just too hard? Have you ever felt like you missed out on doing some things—things your non-believing friends have done? Have you ever felt cheated? Have you ever felt like God hasn’t come through? Have you ever felt like, “I prayed, and God hasn’t protected me. God hasn’t protected my loved ones. God hasn’t provided.” Have you ever felt cheated? Have you ever been unsure of the choice you’ve made? Sometimes, I wonder if Peter and Paul ever felt that way, particularly as they approached the end of their earthly lives.
Next Sunday, I’m going to start this new series on the post-resurrection appearances of Christ. After next Sunday, Barb and I will be leaving with about 165 of you to go on our 25th anniversary trip. Most of you are leaving a week from Wednesday. Barb and I are leaving a week from Monday. We’re going to be traveling to places the Apostle Paul went. We’re going to be traveling to places where the Apostle Peter went. We’ll be traveling to some places that Paul and Peter never went to but surely wished they could have.
We’re going to begin our trip in Rome, and we’re going to end our trip in Rome. That’s where it all ended for Paul and Peter. They died in Rome. They were martyred in Rome. Paul was beheaded on the Ostian Way by the command of the Roman Emperor Nero. Of course, as a Roman citizen, Paul could not be crucified. Roman citizens could not be so humiliated, so he was beheaded. Today, you can see the Basilica of St. Paul near the Ostian Way where Paul died. Peter was not a Roman citizen. He was humiliated, and he was crucified. By the accounts of some, he was crucified upside-down. He died there near the obelisk that stands in the square in front of St. Peter’s Basilica. They gave their lives.
I wonder if they ever felt cheated by their choice. They had chosen Christ, and their lives had been hard, their journeys hard. I wonder if they ever felt cheated by the choices they made. In certain passages that Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he describes the hardships of his life because of his choice to follow Jesus.
I wonder if you’ve ever felt that? It’s hard. I hope you understand that, someday, the day will come when you’ll realize it’s worth it all. I hope you understand as a follower of Jesus that you have an eternal future and you have a purpose in living now. Whatever you have gone through, no matter how hard, Christ is with you. He loves you, and He cares about you. I hope you don’t lose your identity because of whatever it is you’re going through.
I think of a passage in Scripture at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7:13-14. Jesus said, “Wide is the gate and easy is the path that leads to destruction and ruin; and many there are who find it. But narrow is the gate and hard is the path that leads to everlasting life; and few there are who find it.” That’s what Jesus told us: that if we choose Him, if we respond to His gospel, if we enter that narrow gate, it’s going to be a hard path. The word in the Greek really means “stress.”
I don’t know what you’re going through as a follower of Christ. Maybe you’re struggling with righteousness. Maybe you’re struggling in ministry. Maybe you feel persecuted a little bit by the culture and the world. Maybe you feel like an outsider because you’re a follower of Jesus. Don’t turn back. You’ve made the choice. Stay with it. Jesus is worth it. Only Jesus is the Savior. There’s no title that could be more precious than “Savior.” In the Greek language, it’s the title “Soter.” Jesus is the “Soter.” He is Savior.
Of course, there were others in history who took that title of “Soter.” In the 3rd and 4th centuries before Christ, the Greek philosopher Epicurus was given the title “Soter.” We get the word “epicurean” from his name. Today, when you use the word “epicurean,” you think of somebody whose life is given wholesale over to the pursuit of pleasure; but that’s not really what Epicurus taught. He believed in balance. He believed that pleasure was not simply in the world of hedonism; pleasure came from relationships and from the performance of good works. He had a more balanced philosophy.
The reason the people called Epicurus “Soter” is this: for many people, Epicurus had removed their fear. He had removed their fear of the gods. Epicurus taught that the gods were distant and remote; they were detached, and they never interfered with the lives of men and women. So, one need not fear the gods. They called him “Soter” because he delivered them from that fear, and he delivered them from fear of death. Epicurus taught that good and evil are associated with sensation, and sensation ceases at death. Indeed, your soul consists of atoms; at death, your atoms, your soul, is disbursed. Death is simply the eradication of existence. You need not fear it. It’s just simply the end. For that, people called Epicurus “Soter.” They called him “savior” because he had taken away their fears in these areas.
In the 2nd century before Christ, Antiochus IV took the title “Soter,” savior. Antiochus IV was a Seleucid king, Greek, educated in Rome. With an insatiable thirst for power, he sought to conquer Egypt. He held Israel as a vassal state, and he sought to Hellenize the Jews. Of course, he desecrated the Jerusalem Temple. Hanukkah is celebrated today because of the purification that followed the desecration of Antiochus IV. Antiochus IV took the title “Theos Epiphanes,” “God Manifest.” And as God, he took the title “Soter,” savior of the world. Later, Christians would look back on this man and really hate his memory because he was the prototype of the Antichrist who will come and who is to come. He took the title that belongs to Christ, “Soter.”
Nero, the hideous emperor of Rome in the 1st century AD took the title “Soter.” Christians hated his use of that title because it was usurping a title that belongs only to our Lord. Of course, Zeus, king of the gods in the Greek pantheon, enthroned on Mount Olympus, was given the title “Soter.” Asclepius, the Greek god of healing and the Roman god of healing, was called “Soter.”
Years ago, Barb and I traveled to Bergama, which was biblical Pergamum. We went to the Asclepieion, which was the hospital where the cult of Asclepius hung out. It was where medicine was in its infancy. Asclepius was called “Soter,” savior. Today, the symbol of medicine is the staff of Asclepius and the staff of Mercury. Today, many people almost view medicine as the savior. As wonderful as medicine is and as great as doctors are, you’ve got a shallow view of life if you think medicine is ever going to save you. Medicine cannot save the soul, and it can’t always heal the body. Jesus is the Savior. Jesus is “Soter.”
It was Jesus who died for us, who paid the penalty for our sin on the cross. It was His blood shed and His body broken in substitutionary atonement which paid for my sin and your sin. He took our sin upon Himself. Thereby, He became the Savior of the world. Death could not hold Him. He rose from the dead, and He promises resurrection and eternal life to all who believe in His name. He’s the hope of the world. He is “Soter.”
In this age of political correctness, when everyone seems to be into pluralism and syncretism, you need to understand that all religions are not the same. There is no savior in Buddhism. Buddha never claimed to be the savior of the world. You can read the Tripitaka. You can read the Three Baskets. Nowhere is Buddha called savior, and he would not have claimed to have been. He didn’t die for our sin. He didn’t rise from the dead.
Mohammed is not the savior. There is no “Soter” in Islam. You can read the Quran. You can read the Hadith. I’ve read the Quran a couple of times. Mohammed didn’t die for our sins. He didn’t rise from the dead. Only Jesus did. In Islam, you’ve got to save yourself. You’ve got to hope that you live a life so righteous that it cancels out your bad stuff. That’s your only hope. You’ve got to save yourself.
There’s no savior in Hinduism, no “Soter.” You can read the Bhagavad Gita, the dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna. You can read the Vedas. There’s no savior in Hinduism. Every year, Hindus make their pilgrimage to the Ganges, and they bathe in those waters seeking atonement for sin. But there is no salvation, there’s no savior in Hinduism. Yet, the people realize in their hearts that they’re in need of one.
There’s no savior in Judaism. Moses was not a savior. He delivered the Jews from bondage to Egypt, but he could not save their souls. The Hebrew prophets prophesied, as they looked through the portals of time, that the Messiah would come—Christ, the Anointed One; He would be the Savior. Jesus is “Soter.” He alone is worthy.
The path of righteousness is hard. Righteousness means moral purity. We have imputed righteousness. The innocence of Christ is imputed to us and vested upon us by the grace of the gospel. There’s this path, this call, to live day-by-day seeking moral purity. It’s hard. The path of righteousness also includes social justice. That’s part of the meaning of “dikaiosune,” the Greek word for “righteousness.” As I grow older, I am more and more convinced that Christ has called His people to social justice and to ministry to the poor and the oppressed. It’s part of the path. The path’s not easy, but it’s worth it.
We’ve got a cause to live for. We’ve got a Messiah, the Christ, to live for. He is our Lord and Savior. He is King of kings. We’ve got an eternal destiny, a purpose on earth, a family—brothers and sisters in this room and all over the world. That’s our identity in Christ. Don’t lose your identity because the path is hard. Don’t regret the choice you made when first you decided to follow Jesus.
Perhaps there’s someone here this morning who has never made that choice. You’ve heard the gospel, but you’ve never embraced Jesus. This is your chance today. If you have the seed of faith in you, it can be mixed with doubt, but you’ve got to respond to the faith. You’ve got to make a commitment. You’ve got to go through the narrow gate. You’ve got to walk the hard path. The path is Jesus. Jesus is the path. Jesus is the way. It’s all about Jesus. Let’s close with a word of prayer.