Choosing Life

John Farley
Pastor Teacher
Sunday,
March 10, 2024

Choosing life

JOH 17:3

We can take hold of eternal life. And we can reap eternal life.

If you abide in Me,
and let Me abide in you, you will bear fruit.

The Greek word means to remain, to dwell, to take up residence.

So, with respect to Christ, abiding means sharing His life.

JOH 15:7-9

Let My words dwell richly in your heart.

Keep on abiding in His love.

We choose whether or not we will abide in Him and let Him abide in us.

Each and every day, we can choose to let His word dwell richly in our hearts - or not.

Each and every day, we can decide to live our lives in His love - or not.

The word of God is a living thing.

HEB 4:12

When His words pour through us,
life pours through us: eternal life.

1PE 1:22-23

We decide what we let into our heart.

Will they be
words of life,
or words of death? We decide.

Simple: every word that comes out of the mouth of God is a word of life.

MAT 4:1-4

The word of God is as necessary as our daily food.

JER 15:16

For the young believer, the word of God is like milk for a baby.

1PE 2:1-3

For the mature believer, the word of God is meat, solid food.

HEB 5:12-14

The Psalmist said that the precepts of the Lord are sweeter than honey.

PSA 19:8-10

We choose life
when we choose to let the word of God dwell deeply in us.

DEU 30:19-20

They had a choice. Life or death, blessing or curse.

One path leads to life. The other path leads to death.

There are words that give life, and words that lead to death.

1TI 4:1-2

Jesus is telling us: don’t think the way My enemies think.

ROM 12:2

Instead, we are to seek the mind of Christ.

EPH 4:14-16

Are we going to love like Christ loves, or are we going to go the way of the world:

loving the things of the world, and end up hating one another?

1JOH 2:15-16

But we can choose life instead.
How?

By loving one another they way that Jesus has loved us.

1JO 3:14-18

He laid down His life for us. We are to lay down our lives for the brethren.

His love flows through us when we love one another as He has loved us.

When we are thinking the way He thinks, and we are loving the way He loves -

- that’s when we are really living.

EPH 3:14-19