A particular moment, that's a turning point. It's a moment in time that's a decisive one. It's a time that we find ourselves at the crossroads. If you take a look at what's going on around the world today. Of course, we've got Covid-19, but what's it doing to the economy? And this is supposed to be an election year. Certainly, uncertainty is all around us. So, would you say this is such a time, such a time we live in, certainly our Ambassador Bible College students have come to a crossroads in their life. And in fact, for all of us, the time is now. The time is now. And when we look at our college year this year, it's been a unique year. To say these past few months have been unique it's probably a little bit of an understatement. Certainly for our students, our instructors, I've had the privilege and the honor to share the word of life with you.

And of course, for our congregation, what an honor that is. Now we find ourselves where the page is beginning to turn. What has passed has passed, and now the future is what lies ahead. And for all of us, no matter what age, no matter our circumstances, we are at a strategic moment in time. Let's think about that for just a moment. Consider the fact that we've been given, I would say, the opportunity of a lifetime. The opportunity of a lifetime. This is our time, this is the time, a remarkable time, a significant time, an exceptional time. I mean, isn't it fair to say that we've been called for such a time as this? The time is now. The time is now. So, as we begin to consider that, I want you to think about your unique calling, your unique calling because God has placed you.

In fact, He's placed every one of us right where you are to fulfill His great calling. God's brought us to this moment. I think a passage that exemplifies that is one that's found over in 1 Corinthians 12, 1 Corinthians 12. And ABC students, what is the theme of 1 Corinthians 12? Spiritual gifts, spiritual gifts. And when we look to what 1 Corinthians 12:4 says.

1 Corinthians 12:4 It says, "there are a diversity of gifts, but the same Spirit."

There are differences of ministries, differences of serving, but the same Lord. There's diversities, differences in activities, but the same God who works all and all. Now take a special note of verse seven.

1 Corinthians 12:7-11 It says, "But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all." And then it begins to list these manifestations of the Spirit. Notice them really quickly. It says, "one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, one the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, another faith by the same Spirit, another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, another working of miracles, gifts of prophecy, healings, discerning spirits, different kinds of languages, all kinds of interpretation of those languages. But the same Spirit that's working all of these things."

Isn't that significant? You think about such a time as this, God has placed us where we are to fulfill His calling, His unique calling. And what can we recognize from this passage? We are a gifted people. Have you ever thought of it in that way? God has given us gifts. And this is where God begins in a way, we're a gifted people. He starts by equipping His people with gifts.

Students, you have gifts. Every one of us as members of God's church, the body of Christ is gifted. And that's basic, that's foundational, that is absolutely fundamental. And God wants us to begin our thinking from that point of view. So, how can we best utilize those gifts to function within the body of Christ? Because there's some specific things in this verse that are so critical as we consider our unique calling. God reminds us to each is given a manifestation of the Spirit. Every one of us, verse 7 says, each of us, every one of us. In other words, who's left out? Nobody, none of us can ever say that we were left out. You have one, at least one, but probably many more because God has this amazing variety of combinations of gifts that He gives. And He chooses that combination to suit you. God does that very thing to suit you, and your personality, and your way of thinking.

And He puts you right where He wants you to be so that you can utilize and use that gift. And that's not just a church thing, that's not just a congregational thing, but out there, out there in the world, He wants you to use those spiritual gifts that He's given to you. And when it comes to the work of the church, don't for a second think that you are left out, because that's not the case at all. Too oftentimes we may think, well, the home office does the work of God. Well, while that's true, we've been called for such a time as this. They don't do it all. Every one of us has a part to play, especially when you consider this great calling that we have, this unique calling, this calling to fulfill the work of God that God's called us to.

What about playing a part in healing the brokenhearted? You can do that. What about playing your part in opening the doors to the captives? You can do that. Certainly, that's a part of our calling. Setting free those who are bound in the prisons of the thinking of this world. How about those that are imprisoned by doubt and fear and anxiety? We can help, we can serve. Those that are caught up in selfishness, those that are in problems and severe depression, can we help, and help open the doors to liberty and freedom and truth? It's possible through the power of God's Spirit we can set a powerful example. Every one of us can set that kind of an example. And I believe God has called us to do just that because it's going to take every single one of you, every single one of us to do our share.

That's biblical, that's godly, that's our calling. And so, what we find here at 1 Corinthians 12, we've been given at least one gift to serve that very purpose. So, what is your gift? What has God given to you to fulfill that great calling? Because that unique calling is to have that manifestation of the Spirit. I don't get caught up in those spirituality and theological types of things when you hear those fancy words like manifestation. You see this manifestation is not talking about my natural talents, my natural abilities, this is talking about a spiritual function within the body of Christ. It's a spiritual thing. The gifts of the Spirit are not just our normal natural abilities, it's not just about that. Maybe we could say then just my ability to sing, or my ability to lead, or an ability to be good at athletics, or an ability to paint, or to run, or whatever it might be. That's not what this is getting at.

This is telling us spiritual gifts are given. And in fact, I believe these spiritual gifts are given only to God's people. And each person is given an ability, a spiritual gift that helps us to show this unique calling, to demonstrate who God really is. Because that manifestation is really that, it's evidence, it's a demonstration of what God's all about. And so these abilities function within the realm of spirituality. And we all have a contribution to give, every single one of us. And so, we're told those gifts that every one of us have been given are to profit all, they're to prophet all. So, we have a calling to absolutely serve. We must serve others. We've been given these gifts to evidence and demonstrate the fact that we are God's people, to build up others, to edify others, to really become servants of the living God.

And so, we're going to have to give those gifts, and show those gifts, and shine those gifts, and demonstrate those gifts because others need them. And in fact, I need them. We all need others to demonstrate and give those gifts because those spiritual gifts are to benefit others. And the result, the result is that life will have a different perspective. We can be brought together in godly love, and have a kind of togetherness and harmony that isn't normal, that isn't natural. And this world then will have a demonstration right before its eyes that we are God's people. And we sing about that all the time. And this whole section of scripture, it's interesting the way that is immediately followed by chapter 13, the love chapter, that great chapter about love that is a demonstration. Because it begins to show us and is evidence of the fact we are at a crossroads.

I mean, have you ever thought of it this way? We are standing on the verge of the kingdom of God. We are right there on the cusp. And at this vital time, we can step back, and we can ask, well, what is it that really pleases God? As His people, as an individual. If God wants a people, He wants you. He wants you to be the kind of person that will stand up for the truth when others doubt. He wants people that will pursue His way no matter what, when others step back, we step forward. God wants a people who will not give up no matter what the times are like, no matter what the difficulties are, no matter what others may say to try to hinder the gospel of Christ, we will stand for the truth. Because we take to heart the fact that we are His workmanship.

We have been saved by grace, Ephesians 2:8 tells us that. But He says then we are His workmanship, and God is working a great work within you, ABC class of 2020. Within all of us, as the body of Christ. And we need to walk in those ways of God, walk in them, demonstrate them, show them because there's no doubt these passages and so many others are showing us that we can be absolutely certain that God has a plan for each and every one of us. And we have to demonstrate that unique calling. I mean, doesn't it make sense that we've been called to accomplish what God would have us to do? And it's something we can't shy away from that, we can't turn our back on that. While others might deny it, others might minimize it, others might even ignore the calling of God. We can recognize the fact that God wants a humble people who will submit to him, who will obey him. And when are we supposed to do that? Now, now is the time.

Now is the time because we are His workmanship. And of course, as we consider those things, I can't help but come to my mind some pretty famous words that were spoken about 2,500 years ago. I know you're familiar with the story, the story of Haman and Mordecai and Esther. If you want to start making your way back to Esther 4. Remember the story, evil Haman advisor to the king of Persia wanted to wipe out all the Jews, he plotted to have all the Jews killed. And someone had to do something about it. Someone had to go to the king and intercede for God's people. Who was going to do that? Well, we know Mordecai encouraged Queen Esther to face the crossroads, to face that moment of truth, to face that time that she had been called for. And if you're there in Esther 4, notice what Mordecai conveys to Esther.

Esther 4:13-14 "Mordecai told them to answer Esther, do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king's palace any more than all the other Jews, for if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this." For such a time as this.

I mean, we're like Esther. Graduates, you are like an Esther. We've come to the crossroads. We've come to that moment. We find ourselves at the cusp, this decisive moment in our life. God has called us to such a time as this. And sometimes we might have those feelings like Esther seems to have had, feelings that, well, how can I do that? I can't do that. I'm not able. I'm inadequate. I'm unworthy. I'm incapable to do that. Well, hang on a moment, who told you it was going to be easy? Who said it was going to be no problem whatsoever? I mean, God certainly didn't tell us that, because no doubt there will be times in all of our lives when our courage, our character, our resolve, even our commitment to God will be put to the test. It's going to happen.

But know this that God has a plan for your life, and He's uniquely prepared each and every one of us to accomplish something special. As we journey toward the kingdom of God, God has an amazing plan in mind, and He's uniquely equipped us with the spiritual gifts to be able to accomplish His will. God has certainly called us to such a time as this, and that time is now. And so, we need to look to God as we face these challenges and look to Him for directions. And in fact, He's going to give us those directions. In fact, if you keep Ephesians 3:20 in mind, I think it's such a powerful admonition to remind us where God stands in all of this. As we face the challenges, as we face the difficulties, graduates as a future that might be unclear. What am I going to do? Am I going to go back to school? Am I going to try to get a job? What's going to happen with all this virus thing that's going on, things look uncertain. But we can take Ephesians 3:20, as we face such a time as this.

Ephesians 3:20-21 Here's what it says, "To Him, who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

I mean, when we are uncertain, when we're facing questions, where we're at that crossroads as we look to the future, I mean here, right here, inexhaustible, boundless fullness of grace and mercy that comes from our all almighty creator. What a blessing. And he says, "You've been given that power, you've been given the means to fulfill your calling."

Isn't that what it tells us at the end of verse 20? According to the power that works in us, we've been given the power of God's Holy Spirit. And so, God wants us to do that will. Like in Esther, He's given us the ability through the power of His Holy Spirit. And we might ask ourselves, well, what power is it that's working in our life? Is it the power of God, or are we getting distracted? Are we getting off? Are we wondering where to go? Well, we got to look to God and recognize that great calling that He's given us to fulfill that great purpose. And it is a unique one. In fact, when we look to 1 Corinthians 1:25, we find that amazing calling that God has given us. And we need to take that to heart, and recognize it, and consider that unique calling that God wants us to fulfill. We're familiar with this passage. In fact, we have a hymn in our songbook that we sing these very words.

1 Corinthians 1:25-27 It's a reminder, it says, "the foolishness of God is wiser than man, and the weakness of God is stronger than man." God has no weakness. And for us, verse 26, "for you see your calling brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise," that is our calling. And it goes on, "and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty."

Yeah, mighty according to this world, mighty according to the flesh, but according to the spiritual gifts that God's given us, we are a gifted people. And we can show how foolish the ways of this world are, how the mighty of this world are really nothing when it comes to what's really important to God's way, His will, God's spiritual plan, and His purpose.

And we have to see that calling, we have to recognize that calling, we have to consider that calling, and always keep it in mind and understand what the purpose and plan of God are really all about. Because at one time, most of us were a part of what was going on out there. We were like the disciples. We were fishers of men, well, fishermen. But God turned that all around. You know, some of us might work for the IRS, or tax collectors, or mechanics, or engineers, or students, and whatever that was now we're called to a different life's work. We're called to a spiritual work. And as we fulfill that spiritual calling, we see that calling, we recognize that calling, we've got to be ready to step out in faith because ABC students are at a crossroads. But in a sense, all of us, all of us will find ourselves at a crossroads, at a turning point, at a place where there's more than one direction to go.

And when we're challenged in our thinking, when we face two or more paths, two or more options. When life gives us multiple choices, what do you do? Well, you probably remember that silly phrase that Yogi Berra uttered when it came to that. He said, when you face a fork in the road, take it, take it. Well, we've got to make sure we take the right one, the right path, the right road. In fact, Prophet Jeremiah spoke to that very fact. Turn over to Jeremiah 6:16. Jeremiah 6:16, we find Jeremiah spoke to this very fact to recognize our unique calling and recognize life is often going to present us with two different ways to go. And what are you going to do? How do we know which path to take? Jeremiah 6:16, I'm going to read from the New English Translation, so it may be a little bit different than your New King James, or your King James version.

Jeremiah 6:16 It says, "The Lord said to His people, you are standing at the crossroads, so consider your path." All right, think about this, really determine which way to go. And notice what He says then in advice that He gives us. He says, "Ask where the old reliable paths are, ask where the path is that leads to blessing and follow it. Follow that path. If you do, you will find rest for your souls."

Yeah, that's the way to go. You know God's saying, be like a shrewd spiritual traveler, be a prepared spiritual sojourner. On this highway of life keep a spiritual perspective, because that's the only way you're going to get to your spiritual destination. So, seek that old reliable spiritual path, that's the way to go, that's the way to choose. That's the right way that's going to bring us to the ultimate spiritual end. To the kingdom of God, that's what it is.

You go the wrong way, you make the wrong choice, you get distracted, you don't bother to discern which way to go, he said, "that's trouble." That's going to tear us up and lead us astray. And if we see our calling, we recognize that path. And that involves introspection, that involves really examining ourselves and looking at ourselves and testing ourselves, not thinking too much about ourselves, and taking an inventory of our spiritual gifts, and our strengths, and our weaknesses. And then fearlessly step out in faith to that old path that God is leading us down, that spiritual path, that spiritual path that leads ultimately to the kingdom of God. And so, we have to get beyond ourselves and rely on that power within us. Trust God, be led by His Spirit, because that's really how we are Christian.

A true Christian is the one that is led by the Spirit of God. So, God is telling us on this excursion of life, and we've got to look around, and we've got to examine the potential paths and be aware, just don't take any old path, don't make any old decision, but consider it, discern it. Stop, think about it, and maybe go back to kindergarten for a minute. You remember the old saying they used to say in kindergarten, they would always tell you, if you're going to try to cross the street, stop, look, and listen. Remember those signs in kindergarten that were up? Yeah, we need to do that spiritually speaking. Stop, look, and listen to God, seek His direction, because then we can uniquely fulfill that great calling that we've been given. And of course, if we're going to do that, we need to know the path to take. Which means if we're going to know it, we got to know the directions.

We've got to know this Bible. We need to understand His word. We need to never get far removed from the word of life, the word of God Himself. How critically important is that. We are at that crossroads, and as we face that crossroads, we need to recognize that very fact that we have to know the word. And without understanding, well, where's that going to lead us? I mean, there's so many dangers, so many ways to get off track, so many ways that that we could fall into neglect, fall into disregard, not be focused, end up getting distracted. Now, if you're still there in Ephesians, go over to Ephesians 4:11. It helps us to recognize this very fact. I mean, it's something we've probably read many times over. But when we consider such a time as this, as we consider our amazing unique calling, and when we recognize the fact that God's given us the keys to success. He's given us His word. He's shown us the way. Ephesians is such a great reminder how we have to know this word and put that word into practice. Notice Ephesians 4:11 begins to talk about some of the gifts that God's given for some to be apostles and prophets and evangelists, putting those gifts to work in the church.

Ephesians 4:14-15 “We should no longer be children, tossed to and fro carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. But instead, instead he says, speak the truth in love and grow up.”

And so, he's speaking to the power and the benefits of studying and applying the word of God. Because we know this word is instrumental. It's in fact, by applying this word is the only way we can grow in the character of Jesus Christ. And we understand that it's good for doctrine, it's good for reproof, it's good for correction, it's good for instruction in righteousness.

Remember that memory verse students. And we applied this word, and as we read this word, our minds are impacted, and we are renewed as God helps transform us into people who honor Him. And so, He's given us that help now to do that. So, never get distracted from God's word. It just holds countless layer after layer after layer of insight and meaning and depth. So, reread it, and go over it because it can never go stale as we journey on this journey of our spiritual calling. And he'll bring to mind certain phrases, certain words. Remember how that happened during class? Suddenly, oh wait, this verse I've read so many times and wow, now I see something that's a different application, a different meaning, a deeper meaning. You know, God can do that through the power of His word. And as we grow closer to Him, I think the more insight He gives us into who God is.

And as we grow in that relationship, we grow in that relationship, as we understand His character and His perspective, and His way, and how He operates, and that becomes more and more and more the way that that we think, the way that we look at situations, and the way that we look for direction in our life. And so, never set aside the word of God, never take it for granted. Never set it on the shelf and let it collect dust. Don't let it be that way. God's holy word is the word of life, and it will point us and direct us to the right path, to the way that we should take as we continue to search His word and study scripture and examine it, and dedicate ourselves to live this way. God's Holy Bible is the word of truth. It is the right way, and it's the best roadmap to seek the right paths.

And so, class of 2020, you have certainly done well under difficult circumstances. You've accomplished so much despite the situation. Your creativity has been absolutely remarkable, and it's been inspiring to see that. But keep it up. None of us, none of us can afford to step back and take things for granted. When we consider God's word, let's never let it go. For all of us, doesn't matter if we're just becoming alumni, if we've just been baptized, if we've been around the church for 50 or 60 or even more years than that, we can never take it for granted. And so, God's word certainly leads us, and it causes us to face sin. It causes us really to look death in the face, and stand for the truth because we know sin leads to death. But we've been given the words of life, so continue to seek God the Father, and our Savior, Jesus Christ.

And as we do that, God will continue to bless us. Because He has committed to us such wonderful great things, and we have this word, and we have the convicting power of God's Holy Spirit as well. And of course, when we consider that, each and every one of us has to face the fact, and it's a pretty powerful fact when we really think about it. Look at this fact over in Luke 12:48. Do we consider this? It's a parable that Christ is giving, and we're going to skip over the story, and get right to the heart of the meaning. Because as we consider who we are as God's people, and what God has given us, when we consider the spiritual gifts He's given us, when we consider through the power of baptism that He's poured out on us, His Holy Spirit, when we consider He's given us the word of life, we are certainly a gifted people.

Luke 12:48 What a reminder this is. He says, "But he who did not know yet committed things deserving of stripes shall be beaten with a few." But the reminder in this whole story, this whole parable is that next sentence there in verse 48. He says, "For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required. And to whom much has been committed of him, they will ask the more."

If you read this in the Common English Bible, look back to that passage there. If God has been generous with you, He will expect you to serve Him well, but if He's even been more generous, He'll expect you to serve Him even better. Because if better is possible, then good isn't good enough. I mean think of that, greater gifts means greater expectations. Greater gifts means great expectations, even greater expectations.

So, consider that very fact. We need to move on. Go on from the basics, because it is that time, the time is now to take it to the next spiritual level. And so, we could take this as a challenge for such a time as this, because we are a gifted people. It's a reminder that not only do we have a unique calling, not only have we been given the word of life, but the fact is we're faced with the challenge to choose the right path. And so, we have to choose life. Choose life. God's put us in a position to be able to choose life. To fulfill our unique calling, we must always choose life. If we claim to follow the word of life, we have to choose that word. And as we stand at the crossroads of this life, I mean we know we are at a crossroads. We just have to look, just look at the notifications on your phone, just look at the news, just look at your timeline. We are at a crossroads, our world is at a crossroads, our country is at a crossroads, the economy is at crossroads, our individual lives are at a crossroads. And we have so many choices.

And especially as young people, there are many choices that will come with life. But I suggest to you, for each and every one of us, every day, every day our character will be tested. And in that sense, we stand at a crossroads every single day. The Christian walk of life, our life, the path that we must choose is one that follows the lead of God. And so, as we recognize that very choice, I see I've got a choice between my will, or the world's will, or God's will. And that's a defining moment in our...each and every one of our lives, in our relationship with God as well. Are we going to make that choice? Because that's a choice that Christ said is a part of our calling. It's a part of what it means to be a Christian. Do you remember when Christ spoke about that? Luke 9:23 is one of those passages where Christ just laid it on the line. He laid it on the line so very clearly. Notice what Christ Himself said. In fact, He says this to everyone, He says that to all who were right there. And by extension, He's saying that to us as well.

Luke 9:23 It says, "And then He said to them all, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."

Follow me. Boy, there's a lot of paths we could take, but there's one way, one way to the kingdom of God. And that's it, that's it. So, what will we choose to think? What will we choose to decide? What will really our desire be? Will we choose to have the mind of Christ? Will we choose to follow Him?

Because there's all kinds of choices in life that are out there. A life of distractions, a life of...well, life that we have to be a part of, we have to be a part of our families, we have to be a part of our jobs, our relationships. But are we going to choose the godly path, in all of those things, for such a time as this, for such a time when life deals difficulties, when life deals us discouragement? Well for such a time, it's a time for His thoughts. Ask and follow His path. Even for such a time as this when we're suffering, the time is now to meet suffering head-on with faith. That's His word, His way, we can trust God, we can trust in His promises and His word. And then the character of Christ is even more evident, and it's built in our life for such a time. For such a time we may be just kind of sitting around, we're bored. Well, some of us have been that way over the last couple weeks.

Well, that's the time to choose His way and ask for His excitement, His passion, His enthusiasm, and follow His path. And for such a time as we're tempted, tempted to think the wrong things, to say the wrong things, when we're being catty or pettish or cliquish when those things come, that's the time to turn to the inclusiveness of God, to have a kind of approach that has no guile. And for such a time when we have a tendency to get angry, a time of frustration, for such a time that's the time. Now is the time then to petition God for His attitude, for His mindset, and seek and follow His path. Because those crossroads are an everyday kind of a thing. And when we face those crossroads, I think two words should really be what comes to mind. When we face all of those various situations, those two words, choose life.

Choose life, that's what God would have us to do. And you may remember that memory verse, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart." Proverbs 3:5, 6, don't lean to your own understanding, no, don't do that. In all your ways acknowledge Him. And then what does it say? And He will direct your paths. That's the way to go when we're at the crossroads because now's the time to already have your mind made up. No matter what, I'm going to choose life, that's what I'm going to do. And continue to choose those old paths, those tried and true paths, those paths that are sure spiritually speaking, those paths that are the best spiritual path we could ever take. And we're going to seek that out, and we're going to follow that way that's prescribed by God, His true standard, His true way.

And we're going to move down that way because that road is the only road that ultimately leads to the blessings of Almighty God. If we'll follow that. If we choose that. And it's not a road we can just kind of stroll down or amble along or saunter or wander around, can't do that. God says, "Power down that road, choose to make it your way." Don't walk in weakness. Remember He said, whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might. Because this is an awesome time, an amazing time. For graduation, we'd say it's an auspicious time, it's a promising moment, a time of unbelievable spiritual potential. And so, let's take what God has given to us and utilize that, and never allow ourselves to get sidetracked or digress or deviate, or even begin to doubt because that's when we can seek the path that God has of wisdom and of courage, as we look beyond ourself and our own abilities. And we ask and petition God to strengthen us and help us, and show us how we can serve, and show us a need to fulfill and commit those choices in our life to Him.

Because God wants us to be a passionate people, where we persevere, and we recognize the hope that lies ahead, and we can move forward in love, and be faithful. Because He's promised to bless us, because He loves us so deeply, and He cares so much for us, and He always wants the best for us. And so, Ambassador Bible College graduates of 2020, you've been entrusted with the faith once delivered, you've been entrusted with the truth, the word of life. And so many tremendous opportunities lie before you.

In fact, it lies just ahead of all of us. Every single one of us have tremendous opportunities that are just ahead. And so, by God's grace, by His mercy, let's follow that guidance. Let's completely and thoroughly dedicate ourselves to really become true servants of the Almighty God. Let's truly dedicate ourselves to always seek that path that will lead to the kingdom of God. And let's be dedicated to follow that path, and confidently assuredly move down that road, and power down that road, so that through faith, through confidence in Almighty God, let's boldly take action. For we've been called for such a time as this.

[Joshua Creech] So, a couple of weeks ago, I had an amazing opportunity. I was able to go to Camp Cotubic. If you know my son, he's quick to tell you, "This is dad's first time to camp." I've never been to camp. So, it was a special treat for me to get to interact with the teens on a different level, a different comfort level for them and us. But if you remember back to either the camp video or maybe you've had some interactions with the teens, since then, they went over, maybe they've explained what the theme was. They've discussed with you what the topic was. It was God's vision for you. It was God's vision for you.

So the way camp works if you're not familiar, that's the overall theme, but each individual day, they build sub-themes. They have these sub-themes that Christian living is done every single day, and we're able to discuss that overall vision of God's vision for you as a step-by-step process throughout the week to help it develop into something that they can take to heart and that they can take home and have a deeper understanding to.

One of those themes that we touched on was "Choose Life," "Choose Life." We each have a choice to choose life. And it was a cool experience to get to sit down with the teens and go through this process and have that knowing that it's a choice that we have. Coincidentally, I had someone recently send me a short story. They passed this on to me, and it matched up with this "Choose Life," and that's how I came to my topic today of what I'm going to bring out to everyone today.

This story, it goes like this, there was a grandfather who had extra time. He was spending some time with his grandson, and he decided he was going to take the opportunity and not waste it. He was going to teach him a life lesson. He was going to use every bit of that time that he had with him and make it worthwhile. So he told the boy. He sat him down. He said, "There's a fight going on inside of me. There's a fight going on inside of me." He said, "It's not just in me though." He said, "It's in you. It's in everyone who's existed. So we're not alone. This fight is everywhere we look."

He said, "It's a terrible fight between two wolves." He said, "The first one. The first one's good. It's altruistic, thoughtful, peaceful, loving, kind, full of faith." He said, "But the second one is the complete opposite, everything that the first one isn't." He said, "It's anger, pride, arrogance, greed, envy, self-pity." And then his young grandson sat there for a minute. He was perplexed, thinking about this. After a minute, maybe a couple of minutes, he asked, "Well, which wolf wins? Which one wins?" It was a simple answer from the grandfather. He said, "It's the one we feed, the one we feed."

Through our choices, we choose life. These aspects of our character and how we act on a day-to-day basis, the challenges that we face, that's what makes us who we are, and that's us choosing. That's us getting to make the conscious effort of choosing how we're going to act in different situations, different scenarios. This isn't just a story to us, this battle. This is real life to us. This is our lives. Each and every one of us, it's our life. All through life, we have continual struggles to feed either the good one or the bad one.

If you would, please turn with me over to Romans. We'll take a look at Romans 7, and we see how difficult the struggle really is. Romans 7, and we'll start in verse 21. In this section here, Paul is discussing this inward struggle, this warring that is happening to all of us and how difficult it truly is to feed the good wolf.

So Romans 7 and picking it up in 21, I'll read all the way through 25. It says, "I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God–– through Jesus Christ our Lord."

That's the battle we face. Paul's telling us right here, we're not alone. We're not alone in this battle. We're not an outlier. We're not the only ones experiencing the struggles to be obedient to God and His way of life. We all have to face it. We all have the choices to make. Throughout history, humans have had to make decisions, tough decisions. Sometimes they were the wrong decisions. They're difficult. We see this stemming all the way back to Adam and Eve. They had a choice of which fruit to eat. From which tree were they going to partake of?

We see that back in Genesis 3. It goes through the steps leading up to the decision they came to, and the consequences of their actions kind of gives a little bit of their thought processes along the way and how they made that decision of what they were going to do. So don't ever think that you're alone. Don't ever think and beat yourself up that maybe you've made some poor choices that you have to battle this individually because we're all making choices. We're all trying to grow and develop.

So our thinking, our choices on a day-to-day basis, are they critical? Are they absolutely critical? Think about that for a second. Think about the choices that we make every day. Maybe we make them monthly, whether it's paying bills. We have those monthly. Maybe there are some choices that we only do on a yearly basis. We have choices everywhere we look. Some are important. Some are not as critical at times.

As you think about this and some of those decisions that we make on a day to day basis or monthly, why don't you turn over to Deuteronomy 30 with me? And think about that. Think about all the different choices that we have, all the choices that we face. I want to pick out a couple verses of Deuteronomy 30. The first one's going to be verse 15, Deuteronomy verse 15. It says, "See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess."

And then if you drop down to 19. 19 says, "I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I've set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live." We get to choose. We get to choose. We have to be purposeful. We have to be purposeful with the decisions we have. We have to choose life. It's not just going to happen. It doesn't just fall in our laps. It takes a conscious effort.

The choices that we make every day, they're going to direct our life. It's feeding one of those two things inside of us in the right direction or the wrong direction. That's what we have to be aware of with all the difficult decisions that we have that we're faced with.

So let's think about some of these more difficult decisions. So teenagers, teenagers, you're preparing for college. You're setting yourself up for college, what college you're wanting to go to, figuring out what's going to be the best situation for you. Once you figure out a college, are you going to be able to commute, or do you need to live on campus? Figure out what kind of degree you're going to pursue. And it moves into young adults, those who are either in college or just after college. You're there at college now. So what are you faced with?

Is that degree that you're pursuing really what you want to be in? Those are the choices. Sometimes you may change it two or three times. Now we see college students changing it more and more as they progress, different things that they realize about the jobs that they would be heading into or the careers that they decide they don't want to do. So, those degrees. You'll be spending the rest of your life doing that. Is that really what you want to do?

You start to look for potential employers, potential employers that can help you grow in your career and somebody that you are actually going to benefit them. You want to be an asset to the companies. Other phases of life that we have have just as important just as significant choices as we progress through. When are we going to start seriously dating? Do we even want to get married? Do we start dating? If you do want to get married, at what point do you want to have your career established? Are there certain things you want to have done before getting married?

If you get married, do you want to have kids? How many kids? How much space between each kid? Sometimes you don't plan properly, and they get much closer than you anticipate. Another phase in life. You've been in a career for 5, 10, 15, 20 years, time to update that resume. Maybe you want to look around see what's going on. Maybe you need to increase your income. You want a new car. You're looking for a house. Then you have to think about where you want to live.

Then you get into retirement. When is it time to retire? When is that point reality? It doesn't stop there though. There's still choices at that point too. You're going to move south? We have a lot of snowbirds here in Cincinnati. Are you moving south? Are you going to move closer to family? These are all questions that have to be answered, choices that we have to make on an individual basis.

Every stage of our human life has life-altering choices, consequences from the decisions we make. They have to be made. They have to be made. And all that plays into our spiritual life as well. Before we get there though, we have simpler choices, right? They're not all life-altering.

What time we go to bed. What TV shows or movies we watch. Should I wake up early and work out? What are we going to have for breakfast? What do I want to wear to work tomorrow? These are all things that may seem menial that don't matter. Should I put gas in the car because it's on E and I don't want to make the next person do it when they first hop in or do I go ahead and just park it and say, "All right, I forgot this time?" What happens when we start treating these as insignificant choices, unimportant?

There's a commonality between our life-altering ones and these simpler choices. There's a big commonality. No matter how big or small, we have to make them on an individual level, and we need to be consistent with how we're choosing them. We have to have that same mindset of choosing life. Each time that we make one of these choices, each time we face something, we have to choose life. We have to make sure it matters and that the direction of our life and what we're presenting in our attitude and character is consistent, consistent with God's standards.

So from a carnal aspect, a lot of those smaller ones, they're important. They're completely vital for our survival. If we aren't making the right choices to eat right, to get some sort of exercise, we're not going to be able to sustain life. If we aren't sustaining life, we don't have the possibility to grow spiritually. And that is the key. That is the most important aspect of why we're sitting in this room today as brothers and sisters, trying to follow in Christ's footsteps. That's why we're here.

Priority number one is our spiritual growth, our spiritual growth. Matthew 6:33 makes it clear as day. It says, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." All of it shall be added to you. While we think about that, what exactly does it mean seeking first the Kingdom of God? Because we do need a sustained life. We do need to make sure we're healthy and we're able to seek the kingdom.

If you turn back to Mark, Mark 10, we find the magnitude of what we've been asked to do. Mark 10:29. We get a better understanding of what's expected of us, what's required. So leading up to this verse, we have the rich man who went to Jesus and was going through, "Hey, I've done this. I've done this. What do I need to do?" And Jesus tells him, "Sell all that you have. Follow Me. Sell it all. Follow Me." It was a choice that he wasn't able to choose. He wasn't able to perform that.

And a couple of verses later, we get down to 29. In 29, Jesus says, “Assuredly, I say to you, there's no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel's, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time— houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions— and in the age to come, eternal life.” Eternal life. That is seeking the Kingdom of God. What's this getting at though? What is this pointing out to us? It's a conscious effort that we put God first. It's a conscious effort to put the gospel first, the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God. That's what it's saying.

It's saying we can't put anything… we can't prioritize anything above it. Those things that we cherish and we love, they can't be first. These physical things can't be first. It talks about a house. What are our houses? Most of them aren't just a house. They're not just a structure we live in. It's not drywall and paint, decals if you have children. It's not a flower bed. It's not a house. It's our home.

We make them our home. We make memories there with our families and our friends. It's something that we cherish. We feel safe. We feel secure there. It's not just a house. It's something important to us, and we can't put that first. We can't make that priority number one. And then it gets even more specific. It starts talking about individual family members, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, children. These are the people we hold closest to our hearts. These are the people that make us tick every day, those relationships and those bonds.

Is God saying family doesn't matter? Absolutely not. That's not consistent with what God is, who He is and what He's doing. He's building a family. So He's not saying that these people aren't worth anything, but what He's saying, we need to be aware that our choices need to make sure that He's number one.

We can't put any of that before Him. We can't place our carnal things above Him. No matter how much we love and cherish these things, how much it means to us, it's our choice to pick eternal life. It's a choice that we have. It's a choice that we're making every day. The choices and determinations that we make on a regular basis gauge whether or not we're choosing life. It sets that direction, that path.

We've got an amazing example in the Bible. One of the most magnificent examples I think I get to turn to is Daniel when he was thrown into the lion's den. So if you would, you can flip over there, to Daniel 6. We're going to go through this story here. I'm not going to read it verse by verse. I'm going to summarize most of it. But you should be able to get the gist of it, and these choices that we have, I'm going to play back on those and how he acted, what his attitude was and characteristics, what made him tick and how he processed different things.

Daniel chose that his relationship with God was more valuable than any man's words, even if it meant his own life. So let's walk through a little bit of this, and like I said, I'll try summarizing it. So we begin here. At this point, Daniel was approximately 80 years old as he's going into this section of chapter 6. He's right about 80. He finds himself in a difficult situation. He'd done well for himself. He'd made a good career. He was one of the King's top advisors. He'd been trustworthy. He'd been reliable, and he got promoted all the way up, up and up and up the chains.

And he became one of the top administrators. That was through exceptionally hard work. He was diligent with what he did. He was efficient. He got things done all the way to the point that he started getting recognized by a pagan king. This pagan king utilized him, and he became a top advisor. He was able to recognize the contributions that David gave to the land, to his kingdom. That's why he found the position that he was working in. Like we see some times today, this infuriated some of the other advisers, some of the other people he worked with. They were not happy about it. And they came up with this plot, and they attempted to have him undercut.

They were trying to figure out a way to get him removed from his position. They didn't care the reasoning, but they wanted to find something, anything they could use to besmirch his name, to make him lose his role. They didn't care what it was. They were looking for any little bit of dirt, any skeleton that he had in his closet. They were diligently looking for it. But they couldn't find any. Like I said, we find cases of this today.

Many of you may have either experienced it yourself or you've watched other co-workers it happened to. Society, the workforce is cutthroat at times. Maybe you've witnessed people who are doing well. They are progressing. Bosses are noticing. Then someone else either starts taking credit for things that the other was doing, or they start spreading rumors and lies, anything they can do to undercut him. It's just sometimes human nature. We don't want to see the other person succeed. That's what was happening here. It's exactly what Daniel was experiencing.

He was trying to be overthrown from his position. All the success he had, they wanted removed, but they couldn't find anything. So they resorted to the one thing they knew and they could rely on. And that was Daniel's character. That was his attitude, his personality. He was squeaky-clean everywhere else, but they knew they could get him. They were jealous, and so they came up with this plot.

They came up with this plot to use the king against him without the king realizing it. They were going to use his faithfulness to God in this plan to have him removed from his position, from the administrative position he was in. Even though these people hated him down to the core, they recognized his faithfulness. They recognized that's what they could use.

So what they did, they went to the king. They went to the king, and they started using flattery and building up, "Live forever king. You're great." I could think of any number of things that they could say to the king to, you know, puff him up, make him feel good. They were the top advisors as well. They were in similar roles. They knew. They worked with the king as well. I'm sure they had any number of things that they used to build him up and make him feel good.

What they convinced him to do was to sign a decree. It's basically a temporary law. What they wanted, they said, "Sign this decree that won't allow anybody to pray to anybody else except for you for 30 days. We have 30 days where all prayers are directed to you. That's it, nobody else." The king fell for it. He didn't process what was going on. He went ahead and signed the decree. It sounded good to him. He was excited. He's like, "All right. Everybody's focused on me 30 days. That's a great thing for me, good to be king." So he signed this. All those other workers, they thought they had him trapped. They thought they trapped Daniel.

They thought they won. They had everything figured out, no more problems. Daniel would be removed because they knew his faithfulness, and the choices that he made in his life, he would be dedicated to God no matter what over everything else. So they assembled, all these men who convinced the king to sign this decree, they assembled and waited for Daniel to pray to God.

It was pretty open in those times where a lot of times, it was more of an open kind of patio type area, and so they could clearly see. So what they did, they waited. They knew for a fact that his faithfulness, he would do it. They knew there was no getting around it that that was the only thing negative they could say about him, which isn't really negative at all. From our standpoint, that's dedication like we all wish we could have. So he did. He still didn't have a poor attitude.

He wasn't being belligerent. He wasn't being rebellious of the decree that was signed. He was relying on God. He was being faithful. He worshiped God in the same way that he'd always done, the same manner, the same fashion, the way he was going to continue to do it even after that. No human law was going to stop him from putting God first.

So the men caught him. They saw what he did, and they took it to the attention of the king. He was immediately upset, immediately upset. He realized he'd been duped. They twisted things, and he'd been duped. He liked David. He'd put David in the position he was in. He appreciated the contributions that he had. He actually spent all day working to try to change the decree to get out of it, find some way of reneging on it. But because of the way the laws work in that society, there was nothing that he could do. It was mandatory. There was no changing it.

So he reluctantly commanded that Daniel be cast into the lion's den. He had to follow through with it. But it's amazing what he says. If you flip to Daniel 6:16 says what the king says to Daniel when he throws him in. Verse 16 says, "So the king gave the command, and they brought Daniel and cast him into the den of lions. But the king spoke, saying to Daniel, 'Your God, whom you serve continually, He will deliver you." Again, this pagan king, he said, "He will deliver you." Through the choices that Daniel made in his life, the king knew. The king knew that there was a way out, that just because Daniel was in that den, it didn't mean the end of his life.

He saw all the things that God worked through Daniel. The times He protected Daniel, He advanced him, and Daniel was diligent to always praise God for those, always turned back to God. He protected Daniel. What happens? What happens in that lion's den? He didn't get devoured. He wasn't injured. So the next day when they come back to see what happened, to see what the results were of Daniel in the lion's den, they checked on him. They wanted to see what happened. He was fine. He was fine. God protected him.

So the king gathered all the men who accused Daniel. He wrangled them all up as well as every part of their family, their wives, their children. He threw all of them into the pit. He destroyed all of them. And immediately after that, he made a new decree. We find a new decree at the end of chapter 6. It starts in verse 26 of chapter 6.

It reads, "I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom men must tremble and fear before the God of Daniel. For He is the living God, and steadfast forever. His kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed, and His dominion shall endure to the end. He delivers and rescues, and He works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions." The very last verse 28 says, "So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian."

Daniel made a choice to be 100% dedicated to God, even if it meant his physical life would end. He wasn't guaranteed that God would protect him in the lion's den, but he had the faith. He knew that his responsibility was to be dedicated, to never give up on God and follow through. We also need to take careful note of what Daniel didn't do. We don't find him becoming angry at the accusers. He didn't hate them. He didn't hate them. We don't find that anywhere in the Bible.

He wasn't resentful about his faith. He wasn't angry at God for putting him in that difficult situation. The only choices, the only qualities that we see are him feeding the good wolf. We see positivity coming from him. He continually loved God, continually. There was no ceasing. Even in the midst of this trial where it looked like his life would end, he continued to be faithful. He held on to the hope. He held on to that hope. He never gave it up through it all.

What kind of reaction would we have? We need to put ourselves in those situations. If we had somebody at work trying to undercut our promotion, how do we feel? How do we take that to heart? Do we start becoming bitter? Are we angry? Are we annoyed? Are those the choices that we're making, are those the qualities that we're going to show?

We can use Daniel as the reference of how not to be consumed, how not to be consumed by that bad wolf inside of us without feeding that bad wolf. We don't want to feed the rage. We don't want to do that no matter how difficult life is or how we think we've been wronged by people, how to refrain from being offended from others' actions. We had a great sermonette last week about offending people and being offended. This is critical for everything we are, who we are.

So what was it that Daniel did exactly? How did he keep from getting consumed with self-pity, saying, "Oh, I'm in this terrible state. All these people are trying to destroy me, even the king. Even the king threw me in this pit.” Daniel fed the good wolf. He used truth, and he used humility. He knew that if he was humble, God would protect him. He knew the truth inside of him. His faithfulness was to rely on God, to worship God no matter what laws man-made. He kept that relationship close with God.

He was caught at fault for praying, for building his relationship with God, talking to God. That's what they tried to catch him at, and that's what saved him. His choice was to go to God in prayer, even when it meant he would suffer. Even when it meant he was going to suffer, he still got down on his knees and prayed to God, always keeping God, that relationship, that bond, that bond that we have with our father and our mother, or brothers, and sisters. That was the bond he wanted with God, and that was the one he kept. That was the one he kept. The choices were his. The choice was his to make, and he chose to stay in prayer.

We have the choice of which wolf to feed in every situation of our lives, whether it's big or small. We may not always have control of the situation. Life throws things at us at times where it's out of our control. But what we do get to control is our attitude, our character, who we are, who we want to present, who we want to portray ourselves as. That's what we get to control. That's all we're accountable for. Not even God takes that away.

God doesn't even take our choices away. He allows us to choose. He's given us that free moral agency. That's how important it is for us to make the wise choices. God has given us the ability to do that, and He's not even going to step over that line and force us to do things. We have the choice to either choose life or choose death, feed our good wolf or feed the bad one and what's going to come out on us. We have that freedom. We have the freedom to grow and develop spiritually. So throughout our lives, we'll be faced with choices that are extremely important for our spiritual life, our spiritual journey of all we're going through. They're not always simple like which toothpaste flavor to pick. There are 50 of them at the store now. They're not always simple. They may be difficult at times, but we still have to make the right one.

The choices determine where we are prioritizing items in our life. Are we prioritizing the Kingdom of God as number one? Being part of the God family, is that number one? I hope so. I hope this journey that we're on, that's always at the forefront. That's always at the forefront that we're trying to be part of God's Kingdom. There might be a time in our lives where we're faced with feeding one of these two wolves. Are we going to use love? Are we going to use joy? Are we going to be kind and patient to those people who are trying to undercut us, who are trying to take something away that we deserve? It's hard not to feed the other one. It's hard not to let the worldly aspect and how society would react. It's hard not to let that consume us. It's hard not to slip into that. But that's what's expected of us. It's what's expected of us. We have to be honest and faithful to our true calling, our true calling.

We discussed a little bit about careers and how big of an impact that has on our lives. And even at an early age, that's one of the larger decisions that we have to make is what we're going to spend the next 40, 50 years doing. So what happens when we find ourselves in a situation where that's at risk? That's one of the areas where we can be caught up because we're being responsible and following God's way of life. Maybe corporate sent down a letter to your boss saying there's a mandatory change in policy. Mandatory change is once every month. It's a mandatory weekend work, Saturday and Sunday, both, no exceptions. Once every month, it's required. That hits us hard. That hits us real hard. How are we going to react to that?

What is going to be the choices that we make? It says it's mandatory. Are we going to immediately quit, just throw up our hands and say, "Nope. I'm done. I quit. This is garbage. You guys are ridiculous. I can't believe you're instilling this"? Are we going to get sucked into that pit of negativity? If we look at this, it's more than just a question of are we going to work the Sabbath or we not. It's deeper than that. There's much more to it because, how we react, that tells who we are. That tells what we're built of, what we're made of, what we're focusing on. It's not just us saying, "I'm not working the Sabbath." That's not it. That's not the extent of it. There's a broader sense that we have to grasp.

We have to take a page out of how Daniel acted. Use his playbook. Use his actions, his personality. He was a great worker. That's why he did so well. He was a fantastic worker in a pagan world, pagan society. We're right there with him. We're right there with him. We find these stories in the Bible. It may have been thousands of years ago, but we're still living it. We're still fighting that fight. We're on our journey now. They were on their journey then. We're on our journey now, and we can use that.

So what do we do? Do we turn to the negative side of maybe losing our job, the potentially losing our job? Do we give up at that point? That's not us. That's not who we are. That's not who God expects us to be either. He expects us to refocus. He expects us to dig deep down and rely on Him for the rest. We have to be that good example. We focus on the right things we're doing for the company. All the good that we provided, we continue providing it. We continue providing it. We keep a good attitude. We are diligent with our work. That's who we are. We keep providing that.

We keep showing the company, "Hey, I'm a good worker. I know you made this rule. Until you actually force me to work the Sabbath, I'll stay here, and I'll keep working for you. I'll keep producing good work, good quality work." And there may come a time where they say, "Okay. We can't use your services anymore because you won't work the Sabbath." And we keep a good attitude. We understand that that's it. But maybe God intervenes. Maybe God changes something. And our faith held strong enough and we were there, and God blessed us with maybe it worked out and we were able to keep working.

If we think about Daniel, after he had spent that night in the lion's den, he didn't yell at the king when the king said, "Daniel, are you down there?" He didn't say, "What are you doing? Yeah. I'm still alive. Why am I down here in the first place? What were you thinking to put me in the pit? I was your number one guy." He didn't get upset. He didn't get angry. That's not what we find.

If you look at verse 21, it's really cool to see how he reacted to this. Daniel 6:21 says, "Then Daniel said to the king, 'O, king, live forever! Live forever!” He says, "My God sent His angels and shut the lion's mouth so that they have not hurt me because I was found innocent before Him, and also king, I have done no wrong before you." Daniel's first words to the king that threw him into a lion's pit was, "O, king, live forever. Live forever." This wasn't a man of God that was following God's Way of life, this was a pagan king, who lacked the understanding of truth. And Daniel's saying, "Live forever. I'm in this pit with these lions, but live forever."

It wasn't, "I told you so I'd still be here in the morning. You didn't listen." He said, "Live forever." That's how we have to act. That's how we have to feel. We have to understand that God has us on a journey. As much as this is our path and our journey, God's the one in control. God's the one that's guiding it. He's guiding us.

Our bosses and employers in the world, they're in the same situation as the king. They don't quite understand our truth. They don't have the knowledge that we do about the Bible and the truth and the understanding. They don't understand it, but they may view you as a great worker. They love having you around. They love inviting you over to their house, going out to dinner. They know they can trust you when they have the big jobs, the important jobs that need to be done. They can trust you. They know you'll get it done. You'll be on time. It'll be good quality. They don't have to question it. They don't have to question your effort and what you're going to produce. That's how we feed that good wolf inside of us. Those are the choices that we have to make.

We won't work the Sabbath. We know that. But we also must continue in a loving, a patient, passionate frame of mind. Understand that God is in control. We may lose jobs at times, but we have to continue to be diligent. We have to be hard-working employees until they determine they can't use us. That's when we realize we have to part ways, is when they say, "Okay. You have to come to the Sabbath. There's no other option." That's when we part ways because we won't do that.

We aren't willing to give up on God's way of life, and that's where we draw the line. That's where we stand firm. But we can still continue to show them a different side of us, a positive side, not negativity for us being fired. We buckled down. We did our best. We provided. We were meticulous with every piece of report that we produced, every little bit of information that we produced for them. But it wasn't enough, and that's fine. We part ways, and we show them that we are still somebody good. We have a good heart. We have no bad feelings towards them. We have no bad feelings towards the company because that's who we are. That's what makes us up. That's the wolf that we feed as God's people. It's the difference between us and the world.

We're going to be a light. We're going to be that light anywhere we go in every aspect. In every aspect of our life, we want to be a light, whether it's the weekly Sabbath or needing time off for the Holy Days, we have to approach every situation with the same intent. We're going to hold strong to follow God's way of life, but we're also going to be loving. We're going to be patient and kind.

We must focus on being intentional. It's what we've been talking about today, being intentional because it's our choice. It's a choice that we have, the choice that we're going to make. We're making it right now. We're going to be a positive influence on everybody around us. We don't want to feed anything but the good wolf because that's who we want to be. That's who we want to show. That's who we are, the people we are.

It's a choice for us to maintain high standards. It's a choice. Small task daily, long life choices, that's who we are. We have to approach it with a godly attitude, a quality of work that pleases Him. And it's much easier if we view it that way. If we look at the quality of all of our work, all of our choices, and we view God as the one we're trying to please, even if it's our employer, think of it as we're working for God. We're working for God because we really are because it says we're going to be a light to the world.

So by us being around all of our co-workers, our bosses, we're working for God because, at some point in time, God's going to flip that switch, and they're going to understand. And hopefully, they can look back, and they can say, "Oh, that makes sense now. That makes sense why you were so kind when all of these bad things happened to you. You made a difference. I remember you. I remember how you acted. That was impressive." That's what we're looking to, God standard.

So look at God as being our boss always in every aspect of our life. It's easier to nail this concept down when we do that when we look at Him as who we're trying to please. Now, if you've turned with me over to 1 Corinthians, we've got a section here. 1 Corinthians 10. In the last couple of verses here of chapter 10, Paul writes about this exact point of God being our focus. Pick it up in verse 33. We'll read down through… All right. 31. We'll start in 31 and read down through 33.

1 Corinthians 10:31 says, "Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense, either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the Church of God, just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved." We're doing everything to the glory of God. We're trying to build His family.

Do other people profit when we choose to feed that bad wolf with negativity when we tear somebody down because it didn't go our way? Do we have disdain or disgust towards people with, "It wasn't exactly the way we wanted"? You could replace that with any other word that's negative that would not be considered godly.

Are we quick to jump on others when we think they're doing something wrong, maybe they did do something wrong, maybe we asked them to do it a specific way? So it wasn't necessarily wrong. It just wasn't what I expected, what I was looking to get out of it, how I planned it to be done. It's how I wanted it handled. Do we jump on them? Are we quick to react, quick to feed that bad wolf instead of being patient, instead of being kind, instead of using the completely wrong attitude? That's where we need to take a second and choose. That's where we need to make the choice of choosing to use kind words, loving words.

If we take a second to pause before we react, we have a better chance of making a choice of where they would profit. Maybe if we take the second to actually explain why I wanted something done away, why it would be more efficient this way. That's loving. That's kind. Not to tell them how stupid they were for doing it that way. It made no sense. That's not loving.

It's never easy to change how we think or how we act, but God has given us tools. One of the most valuable tools is the Bible. The Bible is our instruction manual. If we hold it close to our heart, we have detailed steps of how we're to act, detailed instructions, step by step instructions of how we can change who we are, how we can make these choices to choose life. If we focus on that, it teaches us how to continually make good choices based on striving for the Kingdom of God.

I found this, the story of the two wolves, this analogy, to fit perfectly with this choosing life because every single time that we feed one of the two, it's a choice that we make. I thought it fit nicely with the camp theme of choose life because of that, because every individual choice, every perspective that we have, decisions we make, we are to choose life. We have to go down that path with our choices.

What happens when we don't eat? What happens when we don't have physical food? We become drained. Day of Atonement, towards the end of the day, we're getting tired. We're getting worn out because we haven't had any nutrition, any sustenance. Think of it from this analogy too. We're actually feeding one of those two.

If we're able to come to a point where we are very seldom feeding that negative aspect, it's going to get weaker and weaker. It's not going to be the first thing that pops in our head. It's not going to be our first reaction to things. We're starving out that negative side of us, and by starving it out, it becomes less of an impact on our lives and we start becoming the good person that we wanted to be. Those good choices are easier because that's what we're used to. That's the attitude and that's the character that we want to have. If we make biblically sound choices, we can deplete that bad wolf of nutrition to where it barely exists.

We are human. We may slip up every now and then and slip back into those tendencies because we're carnal. But it's not going to be very often. We're not going to give them power over our lives to influence us. We have the choice to feed one of the two. We need to choose life.