Sermon Transcript — November 12, 2005
This afternoon what I'd like to do is to discuss a topic that has a lot of meaning to each and every one of us because as many of these topics do, they impact on all of us on daily life as we live as human beings. I'd like you to join me first by turning to the Book of Deuteronomy in the Old Testament. The Book of Deuteronomy 30:19 .
Deuteronomy 30:19 — What we have here is a very important account that is given to us by Moses talking to the Israelites, and remember these were the people that God had chosen, taken them out of slavery, brought them to the promised land. And in the Book of Deuteronomy before God sends them across the river Jordan into the promised land, He reiterates a few of the basic things that they need to keep mindful of. In fact the whole Book of Deuteronomy is really a reminder of the things that have transpired, what has happened, where they are now, and what they need to be mindful of in the future.
And in Deuteronomy 30 , He addresses the fact, beginning in verse 15 through verse 19, some very important things that He wants them to remember as His people. Remember, the Israelites of the Old Testament, as found in the word of God, were the only nation that God actually revealed Himself to in a very specific way. The other nations of the world never received this relationship as much as the Israelites. They were affected by God's overall divine presence in the world, but little did they realize the seriousness of who the God of Israel actually was. And the world today still does not understand who the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob really is. But here in the Scripture we are told the following. He says:
Deuteronomy 30:15 — " . . . I have set before you. . ." beginning in verse 15, ". . . today, He says: this day , life and good, death and evil;" Now that's very important for us to understand, because that's the kind of world you and I live in. Everywhere around us we have life and good, and we have death and evil, and we're reminded of this on a day-to-day basis.
Verse 16 — Goes on: "In that I command you this day . . ." This is our mission. This is what Israel's Old Testament focus was supposed to be. And to those of us in the New Testament church, we are told that should be our focus as well . We are reminded of this with regard to the fact that all these things are written for our learning as we'll see a moment. But He goes on to say, you shall. . . ". . . love the Lord your God, (to) walk in His ways, and (to) keep His Commandments, (His) statutes and (His) judgments, that you (may) might. . ." Do what? That you might. . . ". . .live and multiply; and that the Lord (your) God will bless you in the land which you go to possess it."
So as you move forward to possess each and every day that God grants to us by the grace of God, just as they marched into the land to possess the land, we are told that we must also go forward with that understanding that we should love God with all our being and our whole mind and mindset so that it might be well with us so that He may bless us each and every day just as He wanted to bless ancient Israel. But then He reminds in Verse 17 because there are many distractions in the world in which we live, and He says —
Verse 17 — "But if you turn your heart away, ( or your heart turns away,) so that you will not hear, " You will not really take seriously what God is saying, He says: ". . .but you shall be drawn away, or drift away as we heard in the sermonette. The same thing, drawn away, for what purpose? To ". . .worship other gods and serve them. . ."
Now that's the problem we live. This is a condemnation that God is warning Israel, and saying: "Look, I want you to understand something. I want you to choose life, as you're going to see in a moment, but it is in the context of this is what is mandatory to worship God in spirit and in truth."
And He goes on to say, "...if your heart turns away , and you're drawn away in this. . ."
Verse 18 — " I denounce unto you this day, that you shall surely perish," That you're on a wrong road that's going to take you in the wrong direction and your not going to like the end results thereof. And He goes on to say: ". . . and that you shall not prolong your days upon the land which you pass over Jordan to (go to possess it) go over.
Verse 19 — The key verse — " I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you on one hand life and death, blessing and cursing;" And His admonition is: ". . . choose life, that both you and your seed may live."
That was God's intent for ancient Israel in the Old Testament. That is certainly what His intentions are for those called to be a part of the body of Jesus Christ in the New Testament Church of God. He would love ultimately all mankind to embrace this, but not all mankind is embracing it at this time because not all are being called at this time. But because of those who have been called now, it is imperative that they realize their mission must be to learn from the Old Testament examples, and these are valuable lessons. I Corinthians 10:11 reminds us of that very thing.
I Corinthians 10:11 — " That (Now) all these things happened to them. . . for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages are come ." And the more we listen, the more we learn, the more we will understand what course of action to take.
Now one such lesson that has far reaching implications and importance regarding scriptural examples is the fact that these examples teach us how to go about making wise choices. That's the name of the sermon today, "Making Wise Choices," because our lives are made up of choices that we make each and every day. You're choosing things constantly, and remember the admonition is: "to choose life."
Now is everything we do, do we choose life in everything we do? I'm here to tell you, "No, we don't." Because it says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Oh, I wish it were that we could choose wisely every time. Sometimes we do. Sometimes we blow it terribly, and as a result of that, we have to learn some very important lessons as outlined in Scripture. Now, let me share some of those with you, just a couple to give you a background and understanding.
There were two righteous individuals that God worked with in the Old Testament, just like He works with you, myself or anyone whom He is calling now at this time. One such individual was referred to as "Righteous Lot." You remember him. Lot was the nephew of Abraham, and as they were moving along in the process of the life's examples and choices that they were making on a day-to-day basis, we find in the Old Testament that something happened. It's recorded in Genesis 14. For sake of time I'm just going to keep moving, we've got lots to cover, but I'll hit the high points in the Scriptures, but give you the Scriptures that you can go back and validate and check for your own benefit.
Lot made a choice as where he wanted to live. Do you remember that choice in the back of your mind? Because there was a friction that developed between Lot's cattlemen, his herdsmen, and Abraham's herdsmen. There was only so much, as we say, feeding area, grazing area. And therefore each wanted to have the better grazing capabilities.
Well, to make a long story short, Abraham saw that this friction was no good. He says, "Look, Lot, you make the choice. You choose." All right, we're going to hear the example then of Lot making his choice. Abraham said, "I'll take whatever's left. You just go, but we're kinsmen. We want peace. We're not here to fight one another."
So what ended up happening, Lot took opportunity, he looked around, he said, "Let's say, over here, it's kind of barren, over there, oohhhh, that luscious valley down there, lots of water, close to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, but I think I'll go down there." So that's exactly what he did. But when he made that choice, the Bible shows it was not the wise choice that he might have thought it was. Then you find the story continues in Genesis 14. We suddenly discuss the subject of war, and kidnapping that impacted upon his family because of the choice he made. He put himself right in harm's way, as we would say.
And as a result of that, he also suffered something terribly because he chose to live inside the city, not encamped outside the city, but get into the city. And when he got into the city, what do we find? II Peter 2:7 and 8 reminds us that:
II Peter 2:7 — ". . . he (Lot) was vexed (with) by the filthy (conversation) speech of the (wicked) Sodomites. " He was just, ahhhhhh. Now, you know how that is today. If you've ever been around anybody as we say, foul-mouthed and dirty-speaking, it really rubs you wrong. And that should be the difference between the saints of God and those who are involved in that type of language. In fact, if your example is a good one, many times they will stop what they're doing because they recognize there's something different about you, and that should be a "plus," a good thing that impacts on them. You don't want to learn their bad habits. You don't want to learn to become foul-mouthed as some of them have become in this world we live in.
But oppression and torment began to develop on behalf of Lot. They were captured in all of that, the ungodly citizens of Sodom and Gomorrha began to create a lot of problems, what is the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey would say, that happened to Lot? You and I are told to study these things and learn from them.
Well, we find the example, he lost all his possessions. You know, if you lose a little something, did you ever lose your keys? Drives you nuts, doesn't it? You've lost your keys, and you can't find your keys, or you misplaced your watch, or something that you use all the time. How about if you lost all your possessions? Well, you might then begin to feel a little of the compassion of what it was like in the Gulf down there and down in south Florida, what happened with these hurricanes, these people crying, and they've just totally lost everything.
Well, Lot lost everything, all his possessions. And then on top of that, he had to suffer the grief of the loss of his own wife. She came reluctantly, probably going along, but had to look back, even though she was told, "Don't look back." And history tells us according from God's point of view, she became that pillar of salt.
Now how do I know that? How do you know that? That is to say, nobody else was there to see it. How would you know? Plain and simple. "God cannot lie." Titus 1:2. And He said she turned into a pillar of salt. That's what she became.
I would imagine that might have been quite a thing for Lot to see. For example, he probably, I can only say — probably — in this case, but his wife, he probably had her in the front position, and he was in the back carrying, "Come on, girls. Come on, girls. Let's go, wife. Let's move. Let's keep going." And she turns around and turns back, and he sees her turn back, and whhaaappp, right before his eyes, she becomes a pillar of salt. Lot would have had to live with that, if that's how it happened. But we know from God's point of view it did happen.
So, not only was that a terrible grief, the loss of his own beloved wife, but then he becomes inebriated, and his daughters provide a situation that was tragic, a case of incest in the family. I mean you talk about going from bad to worse, could we say that any of these things represent making wise choices? I don't think so. I think we all are agreed that the bottom fell out based on these decisions.
Then we have another individual, and by the way that last portion with what transpired ended for Lot in Genesis 19, if you're following along.
Now we have another example of a man who was close to God. God puts all these examples in there for our learning. His name, King David, a man after God's own heart. Please note, these are people that God was working with. He was working with righteous Lot; He was working with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, all these, as He works with you and myself today. Now, these are righteous people that did not make wise decisions. And they're all recorded for our learning to tell us that you and I can be susceptible to make unwise decisions. And these choices that we make are critical, because they do affect us and have far reaching ramifications .
King David was the man that is highlighted in scripture. In a moment of weakness, whatever you want to call it, the story tells us that he committed a terrible act in violation of the law of God and committed adultery. He yearned and longed for something he should not have taken — another man's wife. Then he covered it up, a major cover-up, just like we have cover-ups today, and you hear about it in the news all the time. The cover-up was what? The murder of her husband, just so he could have access to her.
Well, what were the consequences of those decisions, those choices? Did David make wise choices when he chose to do what he did? Obviously not. Notice what happened. We then see in II Samuel 12 that he's trying to beseech God to preserve the child. But we see the death of the infant child, because it was a child not conceived the way God wanted it to be conceived. So that child died.
Then we have a daughter. You remember Tamar, and the story of Amnon and Tamar? Well, that's a situation whereby the half-brother, Amnon, does what? He violates his sister, and as a result of that in II Samuel 13 we see that that creates a true brouhaha within the family.
Now Absalom is extremely upset, and so the son, Absalom, does what? Takes out vengeance for his sister, Tamar, and kills Amnon. Now you could read, you can just begin to see the reeking and the havoc of these choices. They weren't wise choices. What David started was the opening a Pandora's box, and one thing just escalated to the next. That son then did something else. He took, now this was Absalom who fled for a while and then came back, and David loved Absalom very much, but he was very lax in rearing and guiding the affairs of his son, and that son then began to institute a rebellion against his father.
From that rebellion we have the shaming of his father, David, in public. All of this just because he started looking in a direction he should not have looked, and partaking of something he shouldn't and it just went from boom, boom, boom, boom, one thing after another. To add insult to injury then, it brought about the death of Absalom, whom David did love very much, even though he was a wayward son, caused him all that trouble, what parent doesn't love their sons and daughters even when they have gone wayward and done things that you wouldn't want them? Look at God, how He loves us, and all of us have been prodigal, wayward children, everyone of us, and did God stop loving us just because we were wayward children? No. And aren't we grateful that He is that way, that He gives us hope, and He gives us a future.
But by virtue of what we read about Lot and David, we have this admonition. We are seeing illustrations of individuals who did not make wise choices. And the recording of these events are powerful for our learning, because you and I cannot afford to make unwise choices. We must as never before make the right choice as many times as possible. And even then we will still, unfortunately, make wrong choices at times.
But God has purposed something very important for us in how to deal with this, and so in the remaining of the time of this sermon today on making wise choices, I want to cover three specific areas for our learning today.
One: Some choices that greatly affect our lives. We're going to cover that first, some choices that affect greatly our lives.
Two: Suggestions for making a wise choices. Some suggestions that can be helpful to all of us.
And third: What to do when you have made wrong choices, which we've all made.
The first one: Let's take a look, choices which greatly affect our lives, something we should all take very, very seriously. The most important decision or choice that you will make, and this certainly would be making a wise choice, in that is to choose to follow the Son of God, Jesus Christ, to be your role model and your mentor. To be your role model and your mentor, because there is no one that could even come close to matching the character, the integrity, and the beauty, and the splendor of the life of Jesus Christ. His example, his par excellance , if you look at anyone else to be a role model or a mentor in your life it would be very substandard by comparison. There might be some things you could benefit from such an individual, but you could never glean what only Christ can demonstrate, and that is how we are to live this life that has been given to us by the grace of God.
So this making wise choices, Jesus Christ made wise choices constantly. You cannot find an example, and I submit to you, show me if you think you know one, where did He ever make an unwise decision? He never did. He always made wise decisions in harmony with the will of His Father in heaven. He was driven by that focus, and that is something that would be most helpful for us to keep in mind.
But when you choose to become a disciple of Jesus Christ, that means you accept certain things and you refuse certain things in your discipleship with Jesus Christ. You accept the things that He outlines for you as a man and a woman, young or old, and He says, "This is the way you should do to receive the blessing of God. This is what you should avoid so that you don't end up having a problem with God." You don't want to be on the enemy ledger side with God. You want to be on the friendship side with God, like Abraham who was a friend with God. You want to be God's friend.
And God wants you as His friend. So when you except that very thing, let's turn to Matthew 11 , if you will, and notice how the Scripture is written. Matthew 11: 28-30. Here we're told the following: that we are — to come. He says:
Matthew 11:28 — "Come unto me. . ." Notice, He doesn't say, "Run away from Me." He says: "Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." We can find rest in the arms of Jesus Christ. How does that translate to? Well, we begin a little bit of it right here on the Sabbath as we come to worship God in spirit and truth. This is a day of rest for us as believers in the Son of God and God, the Father. We come to worship Him in spirit and truth, and He tells us here, He goes on to say:
Verse 29 — "Take my yoke. . ." There's something you need to grab hold on, take a yoke. Now what is the yoke designed to do? Normally, you put it on some oxen, and you guide them with this yoke to keep them going in a direction you want them to go. Well, that's exactly what God wants. He wants us to go in a straight and narrow path that leads to life. Few there be that find it unless they have somebody guiding the way. And Jesus Christ is the one who was sent to guide that way. He said: "Take my yoke upon you, and. . ." notice, ". . . learn of Me. " It is imperative to learn about the Son of God, and not just to have His name bouncing around like so many today, people, they embrace Jesus Christ in a very nonchalant manner.
The Bible tells us that this is the most profound decision and choice you will make, and when you do, you are making a very wise choice to follow the Son of God. And the reason why that becomes so important is because it has bearing on every facet of your life, what you eat, how you sleep, where you go, what you do, what your future is, what you should stay away from, how to abstain from all appearance of evil, I mean, on and on it goes. Jesus Christ's life reflects all these things. His judgments, statutes, things that, as the scripture says, we are to teach people to observe all things whatsoever He has commanded, and He is qualified so to do.
Now this is necessary for us to keep in mind because, again, that decision affects every aspect of our life. The more we learn of Jesus Christ, we learn that it is going to affect our place in eternity. Now, you've seen the old Protestant signs up on the hillside or the mountain where they say, "Where do you want to spend eternity?" Of course their idea is that you're either going to go to heaven or go to hell.
But when you understand from the true biblical perspective of what Jesus is saying, He's saying, "You have a place marked out for you in the Kingdom of God, and it is your destiny as one of the living stones that Jesus Christ is grooming for the Kingdom of God, part of that spiritual temple that we are all part of, and you are the temple of God." Because the spirit of God is working in each and every one of us, molding and shaping and bringing us together to be a glorious presentation to God and Jesus Christ. Now in so doing if you will notice here it says that we are to do what?
Verse 29 — ". . .learn of (Me) Him for (I) He (am) is meek. . ." That doesn't mean weak, now. That means meek, that he's mild-mannered, not like Clark Kent, you know, Superman, but Jesus Christ is far greater than any Superman. But he's a mild-mannered individual. He's not one as we say, "He's in your face." He's a very pleasant and enjoyable person to be around, and He goes on, He says:
Verse 29 — ". . . lowly in heart:" He's not got Himself puffed up beyond His capacity. He says: ". . . and you shall find rest for your souls." He says:
Verse 30 — " for My yoke is easy, and My burden is light." And it is by comparison when we stop and consider what God asks us to do, and the decisions we make based on His guiding hand, as opposed to what happens when we make our decisions apart from God. Well, I can only say this: the Bible shows that the bottom falls out, or as it says, everything goes South. Your Life just falls apart. There is nothing that you could hold onto; it becomes ashes in your hand.
Simply because, again, apart from God, you can do nothing. You cannot survive in the long run apart from God. Everything hinges around our understanding of this fundamental choice. So when you choose to worship God in spirit and truth, that has one of the most profound elements that you can even begin to comprehend. And we only understand that in part. We have much to learn in that. Let's notice John 14 where Jesus emphasizes this very thing that we're talking about. In John 14:1-3, He says:
John 14:1 — "Let not your heart be troubled. . ." Because we have many things today that can trouble our hearts. It doesn't take a whole lot to get all troubled and bothered. He says:
". . . you believe in God. . ." That, we do. ". . .believe also in Me." He says:
Verse 2 — "In my father's house are many mansions. . ." In other words in the Kingdom of God, God is preparing many areas of responsibilities for all of the sons and daughters of God. Now notice again: ". . . if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a. . ." A what? ". . .a place for you." There is a place marked out for you, for me and for everyone who is called of God and brought to conversion, and you have a destiny to be a part of the Kingdom of God. And God wants you to honor Him by taking your place in the Kingdom of God and not forsaking it. Not to let somebody else take your place. That's why Revelation says don't let anyone take your crown. You have a crown; you have a place; you are to glorify God because there's only one of you, and if you are taken out, then there is one special unit that God had desired to place in His kingdom, in His spiritual kingdom, that won't be there if you turn away.
Ancient Israel was told and given that knowledge, and we are told to learn from them because the stakes are so much higher now in New Testament times. And what we are now seeing here then is that, again, it has a bearing on your destiny, your future and as a disciple, you will now become concerned about doing the will of God. That's going to become paramount in your life, once you make that decision to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. You're going to want to know about His will. You're going to want to study the word of God, just like Jesus said, search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life? You can't rely on what people have said. You've got to rely and what God has said.
You've got to go to the book. You've got to find out. Is it here? Are they just giving me a song and dance or is it like that, really stated in the word of God? What are these precious promises that God has said through Peter that are given unto us that we may be partakers of the divine nature? How does that happen? Nobody tells us things of that nature today. They tell us all kinds of sweet, nice things, you know, smooth things to make you feel good, to massage your ego where God calls us up short. He tells us, "My people, you're sinning in these areas. Stop this. You're making unwise choices that are going to have death consequences, not life. Choose life," He says. That's what He told ancient Israel; that's what He tells us today.
So you and I will not be desiring to do what? Do our own thing. But what do you hear trumpeted today by so many? You hear, "Do your own thing. You know, you're your own person. You know, mom and dad make your decisions for you? Husband makes decisions for you? Wife tells you what to do? Everybody's telling you what to do ?"
I remember one young man growing up years ago, blew me away. He got so upset with Mom and Dad, he just did not like them telling him what to do. So what he ended up doing, he joined the Marines! Yeah, he joined the Marines, where I'm sure he discovered they told him what to do and then some. And if he didn't, "Give me twenty. Give me thirty." And you find out in a hurry, Mom and Dad were softies by comparison. Wow, if I could just be back home with Mom and Dad and let them tell me what to do. But when you're there in this man's army, this is the Marines or any other unit, you aren't your own anymore. You do what they say, and when they say, "Jump."
You say, "How high, Sir."
You do exactly what they say, or you will learn in a hurry that they have clout. And they know how to make you jump and make you dance.
Well, in this particular case, we don't want to do our own thing. We're here today by the grace of God to do God's thing. And what is it? To worship Him in spirit and truth, to keep His Sabbath, and to keep it holy. Not just to keep it, but to keep it holy, to remember, our children need to grow up with an aura, an understanding, that you, as parents, reflect a holiness and an understanding of this day, and that the children realize, wow, this is important to Mom and Dad. And it's got to be important to me to. Because if we don't reflect Jesus Christ, then something's wrong, isn't it, in our conversion. This is part of what God wants us to understand, to learn, to grow in grace and knowledge.
Now we also as a disciple simply have a responsibility as Matthew 28:18-20 talks of. We have a collective responsibility; we're called of God to do the work of God. As a body of believers, we know that the gospel has to be preached to this world. You cannot do that by yourself. It takes all hands locked together in a spiritual effort, pushing forward to do the will of God, to get that message out. We've got TV; we've got literature; we've got radio; we've got all these things. Local church congregations are designed to provide not only locally but also on the broad offensive of getting the truth of God out to the world.
But we also have an individual responsibility to preach the gospel when Jesus says — let your light shine — that when people see you, they begin to notice you. Now how would your light shine? Well, like today. Because you're not doing your will, but God's will, people will say, "Why you go the church on Saturday, and not on Sunday? Everybody else goes on Sunday?" Well, not everybody. A lot of people don't go to church at all. But there are people who do go to church on Sunday, and why do they go to church on Sunday? Well, that's the church of their choice and the day of their choice. We don't have a choice in that matter except in this one way. We have a choice as to whether we will do what God says, or not do what God says.
God says, "This is what I want. Now, will you, or won't you?" And we have agreed with God in spirit and principle.
We said, "This is where I want to be. I want to be here with you, God, and with Your Son, Jesus Christ, on your Sabbath."
And so the seventh-day Sabbath marks you, and it sets you aside. And people see you in the world. Now other people may challenge that, and say, "Well, you know, it doesn't matter what day you keep."
And of course you can just relax and say, "Hey, that's fine. You keep your day; I'll keep mine." Now, why does it bother them because you keep the day you do? Because you've got Biblical evidence that says it should be the seventh day. They have to wrest and twist the scriptures to come up with the first day of the week, and there's no express biblical command to do so, and they know it. And it bothers the daylights out of them that you know what the scripture says and immediately, they say, "I'm not doing that, and if I'm not doing that, that makes you right and me wrong. I don't like to be wrong. So therefore I don't like you." And this is what happens. This is why people get upset, and there's persecution and upheaval in life. Just like Jesus said, "I didn't come to bring peace. I came to bring a sword." The truth does what? It cuts deep. It brings people to an awareness of things that, wooo, I didn't realize I was wrong like this. And so choices have to be made.
All right, so there is the individual as well preaching the gospel, in other words your light must shine to people. People have to know that there is a difference. The Sabbath marks you that God is your God, that you worship the God of creation, and He knows you because you're here just like He commanded you to be here. So this becomes a very important aspect of the very first and important aspect of choosing Jesus Christ that greatly affects your life. You're never the same. You wouldn't be happy doing anything else, because this is the yoke you have placed upon your shoulders to follow Jesus Christ.
All right, another area of choice under that same, that greatly affects our lives. This is the first great category we're talking about, choosing choices that affect our lives. The first one is to choose Jesus Christ. The second one obviously would be, a career, or your job. That has a powerful impact on where you are, what you do, and so forth. And from a worldly viewpoint, we have to recognize that the job market is changing constantly, and we have to adjust accordingly as well.
Years ago you could work in a certain facility, maybe twenty-five, thirty years and stay there, but today there's no guarantee for things of that nature. You have to be ready to move accordingly, and so therefore you have to ask yourself, are your decisions that you're making, do they create an element where you are marketable on the market change? Or are you a square peg in a round hole? You have to ask yourself those questions. Do I need further education in certain things? Yes, education becomes a powerful tool, especially if you're going to go for a career.
If I were to be a pilot for example, a career pilot, I would have to learn; I'd have to go to avionics school; I'd have to learn the ins and outs of how to fly jet aircraft. Why? Because a good attitude alone won't do it. You know, I can get behind the cockpit up there, and all those crazy dials looking at me and everything, and say, "Take off." It won't happen. I said, "Take off." It won't happen. Why? Because I'm dumb. I don't know anything about it. I have to learn. I have to go to school. Once I learn, now I learn how to do what? I hear the tower talking, and the tower's talking to me. Now he's giving me my call letters. Once I hear my call letters, then I have to catch all the things. My co-pilot and I are starting to hit switches and everything. Everything starts moving and percolating because we now know; we been educated and trained. So, while a good attitude is great for flying, it will not get you off the ground, and this is important. So education is very important in a job situation.
Now today, it's important to also know, if you are not career-oriented, a job is just a means to an end. And for most people, it merely means you're providing for your loved ones. There is no such thing as, you know, "Oh, where's that perfect job?" A job is just a means. Some jobs you'll like better than others. Other jobs, you just can't stand going to work and doing those jobs, but you've got to earn what you've got to earn to do and take your of your loved ones. It's just part of life. So what you try to do is to find something that you like to do.
Now in so doing that, why is this important in making a wise choice? Because the wrong choice could have financial implications on your family. You could put some very heavy restraints upon your family. If you don't use wisdom, it could cause hardship, it could begin to impact on your marriage and family. It could impact on your ability to serve God. All these things are valid elements that can happen when wrong decisions are made.
We are told in Matthew 6:33 to seek God first. Now why do we seek God first? Because it says, "...all these things will be added to you..." if we do that. So if we make God priority number one in our — making wise choices, then God will be there to guide our every need and provide what we need.
Now in our world today there's a heavy influence on making money. Money, money, money, money, money, you know, people, they throw their money away like crazy on lottery tickets when all the odds are against them. The chances of winning in the lottery, you know, are just umpteen, umpteen hundred against one chance that you might win. But if I could just win that one, you know, then I'll have hit my pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. And that's how a lot of people are driven from that standpoint. Well, it doesn't work that way. I Timothy 6 , the word of God advises us on the following approach to life:
I Timothy 6:6 — It says: "But godliness with contentment is great gain." This is most important.
Verse 7 — "For we brought nothing into this world, and (it is certain we can carry) we certainly take nothing out with us ." Meaning the physical things. We can take only character on our final assessment of life. That's the only thing we have developed, and it will be imprinted upon the spirit in man. Other than that, everything else is on loan from God. Every blessing you have is from God Himself.
Verse 8 — "And having food (and) having raiment let us (be) therewith be content." In other words, don't allow yourself to be all stressed out regarding life. It's not worth it. People get all stressed out living life and they, as we say, forget to smell the roses. Life is passing by, and everybody's so busy working, trying to make money, making the buck, bowing down before the false god, and then what ends up happening? He says in verse 9:
Verse 9 — "But they that (will) would be rich they fall into temptation and a snare, and (into) many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.
Verse 10 — "For a love or the love of money is (the) a root, as it should read — a root of all evil: which (while) some, coveted after, (they) and have erred from the faith..." It can even impact on those who are — of the faith — and understand the truth of God, and if they're not careful, if their pursuit is just to make money, they then get: ". . . (and) pierced (themselves) through it says with many sorrows." This has happened to many individuals who figure — well, my own purpose in life is just to make money.
Moving on to another category of consideration, and that is choosing a mate. That's another big area of life. And choosing a mate is a very powerful choice, and you want to do all you can to make the right choice when it comes to choosing a mate. You want to make a wise choice in that area.
Now that is going to have a great impact to the extent on how happy you're going to be in life. Happiness will be magnified when you have made a wise choice in selecting a mate. Let's notice Proverbs 12:4. We find the following admonition. It says:
Proverbs 12:4 — "A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband: but she that makes ashamed is as rottenness (in) to his bones." In other words, a virtuous woman will be one hundred percent supportive, working in harmony with her husband, will not be saying things to undermine her husband, or to, you know, play — my husband is like Dagwood Bumstead, you know. He's just a dumb bunny. She won't be embarrassing him and putting him down in the eyes of other individuals. She'll be a hundred percent as God intended, a wonderful help and support.
Now the importance of this is that when you make the right choice as husband and wife in a relationship if you're in marriage and choosing to be married, it has permanent bearing upon your children. If your marriage isn't a happy one, if there's nothing but war going on in your home, your children are being impacted by that war. If you are at peace with one another, and they see a reflection of love and appreciation of each other, and affection being shown by hug and kissing, and things of this nature, they'll say, "Oh, that's how you're supposed to do it." So that when they get married, they know what to do, because they've seen an example.
You know, it's sad if a child is grown up, and I remember a counseling many years ago where this one situation, this man, hauled off, the wife said something, and the man hauled off and whacked her one. Well, I had to go counsel on that one, sit down, I said, "Why did you whack your wife like that?" Just slapped her right across the face, left his fingerprints on her face and everything, and he felt terrible. He was apologetic and everything.
The bottom line was, he says, "Well, that's what my daddy did when Momma used to pop off. He'd just whack her. And so when my wife said what she did, I just reacted."
I said, "Oh, you're going have to do better than that, my friend. You're going to have to do way better than that." I said, "That's not going to bring any endearment to you when you start whacking on your wife like that." So, it just shows you again, it does have an impact on the relationship, and children are always watching. Children watch Mom and Dad.
You remember the commercials on television, where you maybe see Daddy leaning up against a tree, little junior sitting next to him. He lights up a cigarette, like this, and the little child reaches over and picks up a weed, and puts a weed in his mouth. (Sucking sound.) Why? He's copying Dad. He's taking his role model, his mentoring from the closest thing he identifies to God with, and that's his father. And mother plays a very powerful impact as well.
So, again, when children are involved, it becomes very, very important that a man and a wife when they work together, choosing a mate is very important on behalf of the man as well as the woman. You don't want to tie your wagon, ladies, to a falling star. You want to have a rising star. Your husband has to be one that you look up to. If you're always downing him all the time, you're hurting him. You're bringing him down, and the Bible says that's not a healthy relationship. Work together.
Sadly we live in a world today where there's a lot of d-i-v-o-r-c-e. And according to Tammy Wynette, she said, "That was final today." She sang the song remember, "D-I-V-O-R-C-E, made final today." (Audience laughter.) Yes, but it's not a laughing matter is it, dear ones? It is really a sad thing, because what it did, it recognizes a bad choice.
Now that's not to put anybody down who has been victimized by divorce or had to go down the road to divorce. It's not casting stones at anyone. It merely recognizes that a bad choice was made. And sometimes you go to Hollywood, and you see these Hollywood so-called celebrities make four or five of those bad choices. They can't seem to get it right. They get in love, Oh, this one is heaven, and it turns out to be hell, and they can't seem to get it together. Well, when you do have a good relationship, you go on, you learn, you repent, and you make the best of that relationship, and that's the important thing to keep in mind. But it does reflect that there were bad choices.
Now, here's the problem. When such situations do impact, here's where the great difficulty comes, when children are involved. When children are involved, there's one thing no matter what else is said and done, there is always going to be the following. There is no way to escape or reverse the fact that the choice bears down on who is Mom, and who is Dad. That's always going to be the case. You could have stepparents and so forth but Mom and Dad are special, because that's the way God ordained it. And so, you can see why children then are not unaffected by this type of thing. They go on, they do the best they can, but they are going to carry a certain emotional scar. It's just that way.
This is one reason why God prefers man not to do this, but humankind caught up with many of the problems and difficulties, it happens. And we have to make the best of what we have to deal with, and remember that we have a merciful and a loving and forgiving God that we can go to who will help us in these situations.
Another category in this area is choosing your friends. Choosing friends are very important to people, and God has much to say about it because friends are a wonderful blessing. There's nothing more wonderful than to have friends. Life can be awfully lonely if you don't have friends, somebody that you can relate to, interface with, talk to, discuss things. Proverbs 17:17. It says:
Proverbs 17:17 — "A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity ." A real friend is one who's going to be there with you in the highs of that friendship, and the lows of that friendship, because you're just the very best of friends. But you know if you choose the wrong kind of friends, it can become a curse to your relationship. It can really impact. Now this is where many young people today are having serious difficulties because they hook up with the wrong kind of friends. And when they do that, what ends up happening is that it becomes not a blessing to them; it becomes a curse, because many times what that does, it exposes them to the corrupted side of life. These "friends" bring them into illicit sex relationships, drugs, all kinds of things that the Bible would refer to it in this way — the depths of Satan.
Now in the book of Revelation 2:24, there is an admonition to the Thyatira church in terms of certain corruption that had been going on in the church at that time, and it says plain and simple; it says that there were those who were struggling against it, and it says:
Revelation 2:24 — ". . .who had not known the depths of Satan. . ." Now the very fact it says "the depths of Satan" tell us something, that you, once you get involved in Satan's occultic lifestyle, or his world, and in this spiritual warfare that we addressed last time, you start going down, down, down. There is the pull downward in the wrong direction, and people can't get out of it. It's just like life starts spinning, and going out of control, and there are many people today living that kind of life.
If you read in Hebrews 11:25, you find that Moses had to make a very serious choice in his life. And he made a wise decision. But most people would say, "Well, that sure was dumb." Why? Because he had the opportunity to have anything and everything as a son of Egypt. He grew up under that auspices. And he said he gave to all up, and he chose the affliction to be with his people, the Israelites, for what reason? He did not want to involve himself in:
Hebrews 11:25 — ". . . the pleasures of sin for a season." Because you see there is a great pleasure in sin. Did you know that? Oh, man, sin is fantastic. It really is. If it weren't, there'd be no temptation, would there? If sin was just — blaah — you know gives you the "blahs," there'd be no — this is why the Proverbs tells us, "Stolen water is sweet," 0h, yes, boy, it's exciting. Let's have an affair. This is the way the world talks to you, out there, constantly. The word of God says, "Un-huh, stolen waters are bitter. Don't go that route."
What does it mean — bitter? I thought it was sweet. Well, here's the problem. You do these pleasures of sin, Moses could have involved himself in it, but he chose not to, making a very wise decision, because it's the kick-back the next day that comes to haunt you. You go out, and you do your so-called "wild time," and have your buzz and your good time, which the world loves to embrace, sow their wild oats, as they like to call it, have their fling, do their thing, but when reality comes back and the pressure of God's world comes crashing home on them. Why? Because the law of God is there as a witness in our conscience, and it presses us, and we feel the guilt, something is not right here. And people are driven then to what? Rationalize, and try to cover it up.
Well, Moses didn't do that. He chose to do the right thing. He would not go down that path, and he was blessed by being able to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, and that choice was given to him by God.
Now, there's another area that we could look at very quickly, and that is choosing where to live as human beings. We all have to make choices daily on where you're going to live. What are the factors involved? All of this again covers under the category — choices that greatly affect our lives. And where you live greatly affects your life.
Is it based like Lot? To go into a certain area that looks good? Well from a business point of view, it looked good. But from a moral point of view, it was a tragedy just waiting to happen. Because again, he was surrounded by elements that were not Godly, and what appears to be a sound business decision could be a moral disaster if one embraces and doesn't choose wisely. That's why making wise choices are very important because they impact on us daily. You find all of these things as we said in Genesis 13.
Do we buy a house just because we say, well, you know, how much house can we afford? A lot of people get involved in big houses because, how much can we afford? What about work and location and school? Do they get a house because of that? Well there's some validic, if you've got family, there's some good points there to maybe move into a good area.
But if you move into an area that would hinder your ability to serve God in the Church of God, where you couldn't get to services and couldn't hear the word of God to strengthen your faith each and every week, would that be a good decision or a bad one? You'd want to be a least close by where you could have access to the word of God, to have the fellowship that is necessary for all us.
What are some of the modern-day Sodom and Gomorrahs to avoid? San Francisco, Detroit, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Las Vegas, Atlanta, all over the place. Now, those are the biggies, Chicago, New York. But what about the smaller cities? What about — fill in the missing blank, and you'll find that every one of those cities has an element of Sodom and Gomorrah in it. And those are the areas you want to stay away from; you don't want to live there; you don't want be there because of its impact.
All right, let's take a look now at some suggestions, the second major area, some suggestions for making wise choices. Some things to consider in this area. The very first thing obviously is we should all run to God like crazy, because you and I lack something. We lack the ability to make wise choices, and we need to go to the one who can do it. And He does it faithfully on our behalf.
We're told in James 1:5-8, we are told that if you ask for wisdom, He will do it. He will grant you wisdom and help you in making the type of wise choices that need be made on your circumstances. But we're told to make it in the context of faith, and we're told to do what? Make sure that we don't allow ourselves to get caught up and led astray. That requires diligence. We have to also check with others who ask for advice from mature individuals and from the word of God. Remember, if we commit our choices to God, He directs our paths. And that is found, of course, in Psalm 37:5-6.
Responding to wrong choices, the third category, a final area that we want to look at, is we want to learn from those mistakes. If you've made bad mistakes, heed and flee, like Lot. It out of there fast.
What about apostle Peter? He denied Christ. What should he do? Well, he repented of that any turned around to serve God. What about the apostle Paul? He accepted the forgiveness of God through Jesus Christ, and he lived his life in service to God, and we're told that in I Timothy 1:12-16. What do you not want to do? You do not want to continue in wrong areas. You do not want to wallow or get on your pity pot about things. And we all have a weakness and tendency to do.
The conclusion: If we're going to make wise decisions about God, and careers, spouses, friends, and where we live, and so forth, we must remember that God must be the guiding factor in our life daily. And we have to ask Him as it says in Proverbs 9:10:
Proverbs 9:10 — "The fear of (the Lord) God is the beginning of wisdom. . ." And that is the most important decision we'll ever make, to follow God, to walk in his paths as we're striving to do, and to ask Him to help us, and bless us, and bless us indeed in making wise decisions each and every day.
I hope you found this something to think about. May God help us all.