The Paradox of Choice

Well, good afternoon, everyone. Happy Sabbath. Great to be here. Hello to everybody online. It's always a pleasure to travel around and see members of our family all over.

It's estimated that the average adult makes 35,000 conscious choices a day.

That would be one every 1.6 seconds if you assume you're awake 16 hours a day. So you have choices like, do we listen or not? Do we turn to a noise? Do we scratch a niche? Western society strives to maximize freedom by maximizing choice. But what comes with each choice we make is a consequence, either good or bad. I'd like to start today's message by sharing some thoughts from a very good TED Talk by a gentleman named Barry Schwartz. It has about 16 million views.

Say you look at your normal average supermarket and want to buy salad dressing. A typical supermarket would have around 125 different salad dressings. And if you count the 10 extra virgin olive oils and 12 balsamic vinaigres, you could make a whole lot more varieties. Say you wanted to set up a stereo system and you go to a normal large electronics store. You know, basic stereo system. So you would have your speakers, your CD players, tuner, amp, tape player, or your equivalent today. You would have, on average, about six and a half million options you could put together between what they would offer. Technology today enables us to work every minute of every day from anywhere on the planet. Now, it's a blessing. It's a luxury. But that incredible freedom of choice also requires us to make a decision over and over and over about whether we should or shouldn't be working. So say you go to your child's sporting event and on your hip pocket is your cell phone that has not only the phone but access to your work email. Even if it's shut off, your brain is processing the whole time wondering, should I answer this call? Should I respond to that email? Should I send that letter? And even if you don't, the experience is different than it would have been otherwise.

All of this choice has two negative effects. Dr. Schwartz speaks on. One effect, paradoxically, is that it produces paralysis rather than liberation. With so many options to choose from, people find it very difficult to choose at all. And he cited this fascinating research. You probably know the company Vanguard and their voluntary retirement plans. They show that for every 10 mutual funds offered by an employer, the rate of participation goes down 2%. So in other words, if a company was to offer 50 mutual fund options, 10% fewer people would participate than if they offered five. Why? Because it's so hard to decide which fund to choose. So people decide they'll wait till tomorrow and then the next tomorrow. And of course, tomorrow never comes.

The second effect he noted is that even if we manage to overcome the paralysis and we make a choice, we end up less satisfied with the result of the choice than if we had fewer options to choose from. With all of the options that are available, what happens is our expectations go up, right? And they become very high. So the more options there are, the easier it is to either regret anything we chose that disappoints us or to be distracted by the attractive features of what we didn't choose and long for them. When there are hundreds of different styles of any object that's available and we make a choice, the only person we can blame if there's something we regret is us. Right? So there's no excuse for failure because we could have done better. And even though the results of our decisions may be good, we still feel kind of disappointed and we blame ourselves. And you may not realize it, but all of that reality that we see around us now is a significant contributor to depression, to suicide, to anxiety.

The standards we have are so high we feel false for anything that's less than perfect. So Dr. Schwartz's concluding thoughts were along the lines of, there is no question that some choice is better than none, but science is proving that more choice is not better than some choice.

Today's sermon is titled, The Paradox of Choice. The Paradox of Choice. Because the power of choice is one of the greatest gifts and challenges given to us by God. We are designed to make choices. You don't need to turn there because you know in Genesis 2 16, God instructed Adam and Eve, of every tree of the garden you may eat freely, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. When my son Drew was growing up, he would regularly say, God made two very big mistakes. He put Satan and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He said he shouldn't have done those. What God, what my son didn't realize is, they were put in the garden intentionally because God wanted mankind to learn to choose right. But from a very young perspective, you're like, well that was a mistake. He should never have done that. God gave other directions and laws to Adam and Eve. At the same time, he told them commandments and rules that they were supposed to follow. Go ahead and turn to Deuteronomy 30 and verse 19, a very well-known verse. Our Heavenly Father gives you and I the freedom to choose. Until each of us dies, our life represents this series of choices that we're going to make that will impact us, that will impact others around us. Deuteronomy 30 and verse 19, I call heaven and earth as witness today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessings and cursings. Therefore, choose life that both you and your descendants may live. See, God gives us this freedom. It's a freedom of choice. And he passionately wants us to choose life.

To serve him. To not hold, what, two ways in our mind. He even gives us his spirit, his spirit, so we can overcome our human nature, our frailties. But from there, it's up to us.

We each have the option of choosing life or death, blessings or cursings.

So with that as a foundation, I'd like to start by looking over some foundational concepts about our ability to choose as it relates to God. First one is this. It's important that we recognize that God set us the example of how to choose by first making positive, selfless, loving choices toward us. God set us that example first. He first showed choices that were positive, that were selfless, that were loving toward us. Classic example would be the Bible says the Lamb was slain before the foundation of the earth.

That means God knew the humans were going to fail. He knew that Christ would have to die before anything was even created. And that shows we've been called because of God's love for us. Turn next to John 15 verses 16 through 17. John 15, 16 through 17. The Bible says we've been called and chosen to be God's disciples, to have this intimate relationship with Him. John 15 verse 16 says, you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in my name He may give you.

These things I command you that you love one another. So the expectation is that we should consistently make good choices. It's this cumulative effect of our choices that in large part will dictate how our lives will turn out and how effective we will be in serving others. And that's why the way we pursue the choices in front of us really matters. That's why the verse talks about we should develop fruits that remain.

And you all know some people who will foolishly go all the way up to the cliff of life's choices and try just not to go over the cliff. But you know how that works. If you decide to drink one too many drinks, if you decide not to pay your credit card bills, if you decide you shouldn't or to say something you shouldn't, it can have long-lasting consequences that impact you for life. As bestselling leadership coach John Maxwell said, life is a matter of choices and every choice makes you.

Every choice makes you. Turn next to 1 Corinthians 2 verses 9 through 12 and let's go to another foundational principle. The next foundational point about choice is we need God's Spirit to reveal spiritual things of God. We need God's Spirit to reveal spiritual things of God. 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 9. But as it is written, eye is not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the hearts of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what? Man knows the things of a man except the Spirit of the man which is in him.

Even so, no one, key phrase there, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. See, people either think truth comes from within us or from outside us. And honestly, I think we can have too much reverence for the thoughts of humans. And we can say, wow, look at that amazing thing that somebody invented. Or, wow, look at how brilliant somebody was to make this scientific discovery. Friends, those are physical things. A fundamental and a critical understanding to realize is that absolutely no spiritual truth comes from within us.

That's what the verse said. Zero, zilch. So that's why the world can think things like keeping the Sabbath, attending the feast, living toward others in the way the Bible commands are silly. But those are among the many things that are spiritually discerned. And so the Bible points out and will tell us that Christ is the only way, is the only truth. It means more than just a phrase.

It's a concept saying this is the way we can understand spiritual things, and it only comes through God's Spirit. Otherwise, we view the world through a lens that's missing concepts, concepts that really, really matter. Okay, let's move on to another very foundational principle. There are areas where God clearly commands His will and His expectations.

There are areas where God clearly commands His will and His expectations. Ten commandments. There are ten choices, right? Very black and white. And there are others. You look through the Bible, and we are commanded in direct statements to repent, to be baptized, to pay tithes. But please understand these are the clearer black and white areas from God where right choices should be easier for us. The Bible also has areas where we can discern the implied will of God. Right? So the second commandment Christ made clear, or second great command, love our neighbor as ourself. We don't need this long do and don't list to know we should treat others as we would want to be treated.

The truth is there is so much more to choice beyond what is commanded or obviously implied in the Bible. That is why choices are so tough. And at this point, we start entering the gray areas of life. I enjoy a phrase from one of our Ambassador College professors who said, thank God for the gray areas.

It's there where God learns where our heart is. Thank God for the gray areas. It's there where God learns where our heart is. How does he do that? Well, it's by the choices we make. We move from do, do what you're told to do, to become, become like God is. Let me share some experts excerpts now from another excellent TED talk.

This one is by a lady named Dr. Ruth Chang, and it has about nine million views. Picture in your mind a hard choice that you're going to be facing in the near future. It could be any of a lot of things. It might be, for example, between two careers, selecting a place to live, who to marry, whether to have children, whether to care for an ailing parent. Most likely what you were thinking about was something that was big, something that was momentous, something that mattered to you. And when we think of those things, they can make us anxious, right?

They can make us nervous. What does the Bible say? Nash our teeth. Well, what makes a choice hard is the way alternatives relate, and that's an important principle to think about as we learn about choices. What makes a choice hard is the way alternatives relate, because in an easy choice, one is better than another.

In a hard choice, one is better in some ways, and another is better in other ways, and neither is better overall.

Ruchang argues that the fear of the unknown, while this common motivation when dealing with hard choices, really rests on a misconception. It's a mistake to think that in a hard choice, one alternative really is better than another. That's a mistake we make in how we process. Our nature, since we don't know which to pick, then, as we oftentimes will take the least risky path, right? But even when you have two alternatives and you actually have all the facts available, a choice can be still hard. Hard choices are not hard because you're ignorant. They're hard because there is no best option.

Now, if there's no best option, if the scales don't tip in favor of one alternative over another, then surely the alternative must be they're equally good. That sound good to you? They're equally good. So maybe the right thing to say in hard choice is that they're between equally good options. But wait, that can't be. You can rule that one out pretty easily. If alternatives are equally good, then you should just flip a coin between them. What job to take? Flip a coin. Where to live? Who to marry? You guys aren't buying that one. Just flip a coin on who to marry?

Here's another proof that shows that wouldn't be correct. If you start with two things that are equally good and you make one slightly better, then that should be the obvious choice, right? So if you're trying to figure out between two jobs and I give you $500 more a year, then that should be a no-brainer, right? Well, no, that's not how it works, is it?

So now we've got a puzzle, right? We have two jobs. Neither is better than the other, nor are they equally good. How are we supposed to choose?

So Dr. Chang points out a puzzle rises because of this unreflective assumption we make about value. We unwittingly assume that values like justice and beauty and kindness are akin to scientific quantities like length and mass and weight. If you look at anything and you compare it to a question on something that is not involving value, such as which of two suitcases is heavier? Well, you only have three options. It's greater, it's lesser, it's equal. Right?

Those are the only possible options between any two real numbers, but that isn't the case with values.

We tend to assume that the scientific thinking holds the key to everything that's of importance in life, but what works in the one world, the stuff of that world, is not the same for the stuff of the other world. In her words, we shouldn't assume the world of is, of length and weight, has the same structure as the world of ought, of what we should do. With me so far? So if what matters to us can't be represented by a real number, then what should we do? There has to be more than three possibilities. What she puts forward is the concept that a fourth way of categorizing your options is, in her words, two things are on a par. When alternatives are on a par, it may matter very much which we choose, but one alternative isn't better than the other. Rather, the alternatives are in the same neighborhood of value, while at the same time being very different in the kind of value. And that's why a choice is hard.

When you start understanding choices in this way, it uncovers something about ourselves, something that God very much had in mind.

Imagine a world in which every choice was an easy choice. In other words, there always was a better alternative. As rational beings, we would want to do that, and we would tend to choose the right thing all the time, because that's part of being rational. But when an alternative is on a par, it's in this space of hard choices that we get to exercise our normative powers, the power to create the identity for ourselves. When we choose between options that are on a par, then we really do something remarkable. We put ourselves behind an option. We say, this is what I stand for. I stand for working for an insurance company, eating creamy french cheeses. Whatever. You pick things you stand for. That is why free will to choose matters so much to God. Dr. Chang finished her TED Talk with a provocative phrase. She said, reflect on what you can put your agency behind, on what you can be for, and through hard choices, become that person. Far from being sources of agony and dread, it's here in the space of hard choices that we have the power to create reasons for ourselves, to become the distinctive people that we are. And that's why hard choices are not a curse, but a godsend. Hard choices are not a curse, but a godsend. Interesting word choices. Okay, so let's bring the spiritual back in. Turn to Acts 21 verses 10 through 14. Acts 21 10 through 14.

The next lesson. Understand that multiple choices can be led by the Holy Spirit, can end in different opinions, and both be right. Acts 21 starting in verse 10.

So here you find two God-fearing groups that each interpreted the prophet's message differently. What was the will of God?

The prophet just warned and said that Paul would be bound if he went.

Who was right? See, both can be led by the Holy Spirit and end up in different opinions. And you find a similar situation where you have the situation of Paul and Barnabas had this dispute over whether to take Mark with him, because he'd gone AWOL. A better question to ask in these scenarios is, was God's will still advance despite these disagreements? And in both these cases, we know God caused good to come from them.

The point is, there aren't perfect choices in most of what we face in life. There aren't.

Sometimes we can study and we can pray, but we still do not fully know God's will, because we don't walk around with this Urim and Thummim. The Bible has a lot of examples of people coming to different conclusions with the same facts, and the same thing happens today.

The general counsel of elders makes administrative decisions.

Elders are asked to pray and to fast over their ballots. Some will vote for a proposal, others against which elders, right? Can both be guided by the Holy Spirit but disagree? Absolutely! That's part of what God is creating for us as thinking beings.

The lesson is God influences and He helps us as we collectively strive to learn to think like Him. And then He teaches us through the resulting consequences and the residual choices we make based on whatever initial choice we make. Now, this applies to us daily in how we interact with each other. When opinions differ, do we choose to let ourselves get sucked into polarizing conversations that can divide us? We were talking about that yesterday. It's a very tribalistic world these days. Satan loves division. Satan loves controversy. Or do we rather focus on being this united family of growing together in God's righteousness? Because God loves unity. God loves peace. We are supposed to be peacemakers, which means evaluating if our being right with an opinion is worth threatening the peace that God loves in His building. Okay, let's move on to another key realization about choices. There are many gray areas, right? We all understand. There's a lot of gray areas when it comes to choices. If a person can clearly see two sides, one is right, one is wrong, our natural nature is to choose the right. Outside of the process Satan uses, attacking our lusts and our desires to sway us toward sin, we are rarely equally attracted to both good and evil. So what does that take us? Life usually boils down to decisions between right and right. Now that's a different way of looking at things, but realize that you're making 35,000 decisions a day. They're usually between right and right. A classic example is a married person debating if they should try to advance rapidly and get an evening MBA while staying fully employed, or put that off and be home evenings to help their partner raise their children. All right, well, let's look those over. Building financial ability to provide. Good. Building a strong family. Good.

Both are right. Choices between right and right aren't between perfect and less. That's where we beat ourselves up along the way. Let's review... well, actually, let me finish that thought. They're usually between positive and negative consequences from either choice. That's what it plays into. That's what God is helping us learn. Let's review this biblical example by turning to Genesis 13, verses 7 through 13. Genesis 13, 7 through 13. See, we don't always think in terms of consequences. That's not where we tend to go. And we can struggle, if we're being honest, to even look at negative consequences when we really want to do something, right? That's where we get our self-justification coming in. But even as we work through, we're supposed to learn through these tough decisions to gain wisdom, to gain experience of choosing rightly and considering factors outside ourselves. But as we see in this next example, even if you make a right choice, what often happens is we follow the right choice with the wrong one very, very quickly. Well-known example here with Abraham and Lot, Genesis 13 and verse 7. And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock. The Canaanites and the parasites then dwell in the land. So Abram said to Lot, please let there be no strife between you and me and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brethren. It is not the whole land before you. Please separate from me. If you take the left, then I will go to the right. If you go to the right, then I will go to the left.

Again, please look at the situation. Abram offered a choice between right and left, however he would have divided it. Abram knew God was going to bless him either way because it was promised. We next see the factors that Lot considered when he made his choice. And Lot lifted his eyes and saw the plain of the Jordan, and that it was well watered everywhere before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Like the Garden of the Lord, like the Land of Egypt as you go towards Zor. You know, it's pretty hard to praise the land more than comparing it to the Garden of Eden, right? What Lot did not fully factor in, though, was the residual choices that would follow. So we continue. Then Lot chose for himself all—key word, think about that one—all the plain of Jordan and Lot journeyed east. As they separated from each other, Abram dwelt in the line of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom. But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord. So you remember Lot looked out and he saw that all the plain of the Jordan was good. It all was well watered. The key mistake Lot made is he placed his dwelling place next to Sodom by the walls, by definition. Chapter 14 shows the consequences. And here's where we were joking last night that it's a whole lot easier to just say, King 1, King 2, King 3. I'm going to butcher these names. We'll give it a shot. And it came to pass in the day of Amraphal, King of Shinar, Ariak, King of Elisar, Chedorlamar, King of Elam, and Tidal, King of nations, that they made war with Barah, King of Sodom, Bersha, King of Gomorrah, Shenab, King of Admah, and Shemabar, King of Zoboim, and the King of Bela, that is, Zohar. All these joined together in the valley of Sidom, that is, the salt sea. Twelve years they served Chedorlamar, and the thirteenth year they were built. We'll continue in verse 10. Now the valley of Sidom was full of asphalt pits, and the king of Sodom and Gomorrah fled. Some fell there, and the remainder fled to the mountains. Then they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all the provisions, and went their way. They also took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom and his goods and departed. Why was Lot taken captive?

Rather than moving to a different place in the plains of Jordan, he became influenced to think that living in the plains isn't as desirable as living with people who are deeply evil. What Lot chose and where he chose to live by being near those wicked cities is what caused him to have awful consequences in his life. If you'll turn, please, to 2 Peter 2, 6-8. Because it adds even another factor that we can easily read over with this story. 2 Peter 2, 6-8. The cost. 12 years serving a foreign ruler, evil, malicious. The loss of his wife, ancestral sons with his daughters. Peter is going to point out here that he suffered inner turmoil throughout. 2 Peter 2, starting in verse 6. And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemning them to destruction, making them an example of the future of the world. Making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked. For that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing these lawless deeds. I think we oftentimes don't think of Lot as righteous Lot. And we probably all feel these times we're bothered when we see evil in the world around us. Peter says Lot was constantly bothered by the sins and the lawlessness that was around him in Sodom. And never bothered him enough to leave. Apparently, again, it's the consequences of choices you make, right?

His choice to have his family live in the middle of it put them into this circumstance. So didn't Lot make the perfect choice? Absolutely. But decisions in life have resulting consequences, both positive and negative. Lot's problem didn't come from selecting the Jordan Valley as much as the decisions that followed. And we're similar. We're all in this process of learning.

Outcomes link to the next and the next, next decision we make. And that's how our life works. There's no such thing as this perfect choice that you'll make that guarantees everything after is going to work out.

Instead, they're just decisions that are followed by another decision, and so forth. And every decision is going to have either a positive or a negative benefit or consequence. And bad ongoing decisions after Lot's initial choice are what cost him his future son-in-laws and his wife.

So with each choice, we need to learn to make better decisions the next time. That's what God is wanting us to learn. C. H. Spurgeon once said, the discernment is knowing the difference between right and almost right. Interesting way to look at it. God is watching what we're learning through our process of choosing and even our mistakes because we're in training to be kings and priests. And I'll come back to that word training, but it's this process we go through. Many choices can seem small, right? I mean, they can seem inconsequential, but we find they have huge consequences. I started with Adam and Eve. I mean, that's your classic one. We're all still paying the cost of that decision, but it can be all sorts of things. We could say something casually that hurts others for a lifetime, or we could say something that uplifts somebody for a lifetime. Choices. So these impacts of our decisions reflect the fruits of God's Spirit, and if we're letting it impact us and if we're letting it guide us. Okay, let's transition to another important concept to understand. Say you make perfect choices throughout your life. Okay? Would you then have a perfect life? If you make perfect choices throughout your life, would you have a perfect life? Now, we can answer that intuitively, but I challenge you to look back over times where you have said, I did this right, why didn't it work out? When we do that, we're working that math equation in our head. Think of the example of Joseph. It's the obvious answer to that one. Potiphar's wife made ongoing sexual advances toward him. This beautiful woman in an empty house with a single man throwing herself sexually at him over and over. And Joseph had the integrity, and he rejected this serious temptation that men fall for every day in this world.

Joseph made the right choice. And how did that work out for him?

It ended with dire consequences. Years in an Egyptian jail where you weren't even guaranteed better food. We're in this process of learning that there is no such thing as perfect choices and decisions. The critical lesson is that Joseph continued making right choices daily, even in jail, and then God blessed him.

Many people live their life not thinking of the repercussions of choices we make. But all choices have consequences. Even not making a choice is a choice, and it brings consequences. You can make an equation to that, frankly, with a Laodicean attitude, lukewarm, because in many ways that's what they did. It's this mindset of avoiding, of doing nothing. And I guarantee you they had justification for why that was the right thing. Not choosing was a better choice would be what somebody would argue if you've met people who go down that process.

Let's now consider how we're impacted by other people's choices. Because that's another factor we have to consider in this. God permits bad and hurtful choices by people. Right? God allows things to happen that are not according to his desires because he desires to allow all individuals to have free moral agency. They have freedom to choose. So put that in practice. It's this crucial part of God's plan because God wants to develop family members who choose righteous character. That means people will also choose to do evil, to impact God's people daily.

We will be victims of the freedom of choice that God allowed. God didn't set this up to create robots. He could have. But that's not, you know, we love our appliances in our house. We're not going to marry one. You know, that's not what God's trying to do. And so along the way, God hates evil. But he's not going to shield you from it entirely. He's going to allow things to happen which can include the murder of a person in his family. God wants us to choose for ourselves what is right and wrong. And that's ultimately how God will choose those in his kingdom. Turn to Proverbs 2, verses 1 through 9. Proverbs 2, verses 1 through 9. So we make choices, even when we don't realize it. Good choices start by seeking godly wisdom. That's a foundational principle that we need to think about. We have to pray for. Choosing wisely is this journey that we're on, and we need to discern each moment in our life what is the best choice possible in a situation. And grow and learn from those. Proverbs 2, starting in verse 1. My son, if you receive my words and treasure my commands within you so that you incline your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding, yes, if you cry out for discernment and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord. And find the knowledge of God, for the Lord gives wisdom. From his mouth comes knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk uprightly. He guards the path of justice and preserves the way of his saints. Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity, and every good path. So let's define a couple phrases here. Wisdom is the proper application of knowledge and experience. Even beyond wisdom, we saw the word discernment. Discernment refers to the ability to show good judgment, differentiating between right and wrong. It's this combination of wisdom and discernment that helps us with our daily decisions, helps us to consider consequences.

That's what God wants us growing in. But as we've covered, a knowledge of God's word is very, very important. It helps tremendously. But life's choices are not just about Scripture saying we can or can't do anything. You're making 35,000 conscious decisions a day. And that's why you should be asking God to help. That's why we pray. That's why we talk to God and we seek His Spirit working in us. Turn to Romans 12 verses 1 through 2. Romans 12 verses 1 through 2. That's why in your prayers you should ask for things like wisdom and understanding and discernment and direction. We can learn from other wise people around us, too. Romans 12 verse 1, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. I think this is one of those sections of Scripture that's easiest if you go backwards through the verses. To know the perfect will of God. All right, we all would like that, right? Then we must transform our mind to think less carminently and more spiritually and not be conformed to the world, because conformity is this very, very dangerous place with God.

And that goes back to the verse that I read at the very beginning, that spiritual things are only discerned by God's Spirit, not by us. So we must be transformed by the renewing of our mind, and we must surrender our will to God, which is that humbling little phrase, that's your reasonable service.

But that's what's being pointed out. Turn now to Hebrews 4 and verse 12. We're going to expand on this thought a little bit. Hebrews 4 and verse 12. Nice to have ice in the water up here. It's a little treat. It says, For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, of joint and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. See, God has us exercising our ability to see right and wrong throughout every moment of each day. And it's this journey of not judging by appearances, but getting to know others, learning to care and love them, thinking about how best we can be a positive light to others, that is the way we become more like God. If you go to chapter 4, Hebrews 5 and verse 14, we'll expand on discernment. Because remember I mentioned the word training and practice. Discerning is learned by constant practice. You never do perfect practice to start something. Any of you who played an instrument, you've tried a sport. All right, for those who know somebody who's learned a horn instrument, God bless you. The beginning of that is not a pretty sound, but it's through the process of practice that leads to perfection. Hebrews 5 and verse 14, but solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. So we learn discernment through this process of testing and learning and adapting and so forth. It's the way we build sound judgment, and as we grow to differentiate right from wrong, we learn to factor in consequences better. We learn to sacrifice more. We learn to make better decisions. But please understand, even if understanding and wisdom and discernment are with you, that's not enough.

If wisdom always connected with right decisions, Solomon would be the pinnacle of right decisions. Right now, he had this epic level of wisdom. So let's go back to the definitions again. Think it through. Wisdom is the proper application of knowledge and experience. Discernment is differentiating between right and wrong. Righteousness is choosing to go the right path.

We need righteousness. As parents, we tend to watch how our children work through a choice, how they think through the scenarios to see their thought process. Will they seek input? Will they pray about a choice? Will they consider how it impacts others? God is doing the exact same thing with us. God wants to know if we want to please Him. Will we follow God's way and believe what the Bible says? Because we've been given this very, very incredible opportunity. And our biggest challenge as humans is we don't always trust in God, and therefore we make bad decisions. That's why obedience is so critical to this process of salvation. Because if we don't—here's a thought to think on. If we don't obey the things that God has shown to clearly be His will—think how I started the sermon—why would we think God would reveal any more information regarding His will for gray areas in our life? That's why God wants us to focus on living righteously, not just getting through each day. And He will guide us when we seek and obey Him. Turn please to Proverbs 3, verses 5 through 7. Proverbs 3, 5 through 7. The more we have God living in us and are surrendering to His Spirit and His will, the more we please God. And He tells us in the Bible how He wants us to live. Proverbs 3 and verse 5, Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. And in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. He will be health to your flesh and strength to your bones. The Life Application Study Bible had a very interesting summary or thought related to this, so let me read it to you. It says, It is good to have goals, but goals can disappoint us if we leave God out of them. There is no point in making plans as though God does not exist, because the future is in His hands. The beginning of good planning is to ask, What would I like to be doing 10 years from now? One year from now? Tomorrow? Then think, How will I react if God steps in and rearranges my plans? We can plan ahead, but we must hold on to our plans loosely. If we put God's desires at the center of our planning, He will never disappoint us. A lot of wisdom to that. And the Bible is full of examples where people had a plan and God had something else in mind.

You can think of Jonah. A lot of people. We can go do with that one. But this submitting and following God is a choice. And God wants us to make plans. It's not that we should go around not making plans. That ruins the whole thing of realizing why we have the power to choose.

We should do the best we can, but always know in our mind that if God has a different plan, then that's what we should want to do.

And I think Jesus is a great example of this if you think about his prayer on the last night. Not my will, but yours be done. It's recognizing that mindset.

We should also not be deceived into thinking that, you know what, there's a lot of time remaining to do what I should, I know I should do. Well, we are guaranteed that. And that's why we should live for God today. That there's no, when we're doing that, it really doesn't matter then when our life ends, because we will be fulfilling God's plan each day that we're living.

Let me share a phrase, and then I'm going to say it twice, because I want you to think on this. We don't work for salvation, but our choices show God our priorities.

We don't work for salvation, but our choices show God our priorities.

And, again, remember that living a godly life can't include not sinning at all. So, just, we can beat ourselves up a lot, but realize we're going to make mistakes in life. It's the walk that we are on, because good choices come from practice, and remember the horn player learning to blow that horn for the first time. It takes time. It's a habit that has to be developed. So, this motto that I've put into my life, especially since my wife died, but it's one of these things that I realize, whether I've done something right or I've really screwed up, is make the next right choice. Maybe when you absorb, because it's a good way you can overthink life. What's the next right thing to do? All right. What's the next right thing to do? And when you go down that path, it makes you think about our calling, because we all, who are baptized anyway, made a choice at baptism. But that choice isn't made just once. It's not something you make once, and it's done. It's made daily, and every choice that follows it. Right? We are supposed to then develop godly character by the choices we do to build God's spiritness, and how we let it truly change us from the inside out. If you will turn to Proverbs 2 verses 11 through 13. Reflect on your day. Do your choices today reflect that God is living in you? Do they reflect Christ's character? How you have treated others? How you've talked to others? How you've used your money? I don't know. Does that reflect God? Because everything we do each day is either choosing to serve God or human reason. Are we reflecting a decisioning path that shines on him? And that's why it starts with prayer and study and fasting and meditation. Proverbs 2 and verse 11, discretion will preserve you. Understanding will keep you to deliver you from the ways of evil, from the man who speaks perverse things, from those who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness. See, making the right choice gives you strength to make the next right choice. Or the same one again, if you face it. It builds righteousness. It builds character. And if you can ever be in one of those modes where you feel, it's just too much. You know, I don't know how I'm going to work get out of this. It's just overwhelming me. I think that's where we go back to the example we shared earlier with Joseph. He had to have felt it. He was making right choices, and he was in prison, and he was having a lot of challenging things happen to him. But the lessons for us from his life is that if we stick to the right choices, our future can be excellent as well. This may not be on our timing, exactly. If you'll turn to 1 Corinthians 13, verses 1 through 3. And if you ever thought about it, but the love chapter is the choice chapter. Because love is an action. Love is a choice.

We do it because we want to, even when it's hard. So I'm going to read this to you, and I'm going to change a couple words in here to highlight that. And it highlights why it's our highest calling. 1 Corinthians 13, verse 1. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but don't make the choice to have love, I have become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains, but don't make the choice to have love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but don't make the choice to have love, it profits me nothing. See, love is this lofty ideal if we don't choose it. Character is developed by this continual conscious choice. That's why God started the Garden of Eden with it. That's why it's so foundational to what we do every day.

Attitude. Oh, we just came through thanksgiving. Thankfulness. Attitude. Happiness. Optimism. Kindness. Giving. Respect. They're all choices. Everything we do daily is choices. And you know kids who will say, are we there yet? So I'll turn that back to you. Has God completed his work in your life?

Nope. We're still a work in progress, right? We're still learning our way through. Our character is what we're building and what must become perfect. Matthew 548 says, therefore you shall be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect. But please realize that's an incorrect translation. Perfect isn't a state of existence. Perfect comes from the root word meaning end or goal. Be is a future tense word, better translated become. So it's this goal, it's this standard to set for us to grow toward. That's what's being spoken of here. Let me, as I finish here, weave perfection in choice. And I'm going to read three sentences and then I'm going to read them to you again. But think on how they tie together. Our calling is an exercise in discernment. The evidence being found in our choices. We're to live out our intents and in so doing we move toward perfection like God is. I'll read that again. Our calling is an exercise in discernment. That's what our calling is. That's what we were called to do. That's why it started in the Garden of Eden. The evidence being found in our choices. We're to live out our intents and in doing so we move toward perfection like God is. See, none of us have suffered anywhere near what Christ did, and yet, you know, if we're being honest, we've all at one time or another said, it's too much! This current challenge, it's more than I can handle.

Jesus chose to go through it. It was his choice from before creation, actually, which is why it's even more mind-blowing. He didn't choose the easy way that felt the best. He chose the way that gave us life. Why? Because he loved us. God ultimately wants to have the confidence to know that we are able to make good decisions and right decisions like his son did. That's what we're being evaluated on. And that's why he gave us free will. We can't. We won't ever make decisions perfectly daily. We will make bad decisions, but those are ones we can learn from. Those are what we will grow through, and it's what we become when we finish the process that's most important. That's the summary of our calling. We were given, like I read earlier, this choice between life and death, and what God wants us to realize is the choices we make make us. So choose wisely.