The Paradox of Choices

Good afternoon, everybody. One of the interesting parts about having it projected is when you don't know it real well, you're listening for whoever makes up the best melody, and you're like, I'm going to follow. Ooh, I like that part. So, yes. Anyway, welcome to our guests. Welcome to those who are online, and hope you all are having a wonderful Sabbath. I should, before I forget, thanks to all of those, whether coming to join or financially, please know we're going to be doing it again in March and November of next year. Anybody who wants to join is welcome. So, great to have everybody involved. It's estimated that the average adult makes around 35,000. That's one every 1.6 seconds if you figure you sleep eight hours a day. Now, do we listen? Yes, for the next 15 minutes, or 50 minutes, you're going to listen. Do you listen or do you not? Do you turn to a noise? Do you scratch a niche? And so forth. Western society strives to maximize freedom, and the way they do that is to maximize choice. Every decision that we make is something that carries with it consequences, either good or bad. Today, I'd like to start by referencing a few thoughts from Bear's TED Talk, which has over 16 million views. And he pointed out some fascinating things. I'll start by putting some of the examples he said. If you go into a typical supermarket, common size, and decide to buy salad dressing, the typical supermarket will have around 125 different... If you decide to count the 10 extra virgin olive oils and the 12 different balsamic vinegars or other vinegars, you can make a whole lot more. Say you wanted to go into a large consumer electronics store and set up a stereo system. You know, your CD player, your tuner, your amp, maybe a tape player.

You'll find that a single consumer electronics store gives you the options to make 6.5 million combinations. Technology. Today enables us to work every minute of every day from any place on the globe. Now, that's a luxury, but with that incredible freedom of choice means we have to make a decision again and again and again about whether we should or shouldn't be working. Say we take our kid to a soccer game and we have, while we're there, a cell phone is on our hip. It can even be turned off. But the whole time, we're having to think in the back of our mind, should I answer this cell phone call? Should I respond to this email? Should I draft this letter? And even if you don't, that experience is different than it would have been had you not had that mental trauma going on.

All of this choice has two negative effects on people. One effect, very 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. So Dr. Schwartz cited some stats from an analysis related to Vanguard and their voluntary retirement plans. They showed this. For every 10 mutual funds an employer offered, the rate of participation went down 2%. In other words, if a company offers 50 funds, 10% fewer people will participate than if they offer 5. Why? Because with 50 funds to choose from, it's hard to decide, right? And so the people just put it off till tomorrow, and then the next tomorrow. And 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 the options available, what happens is our expectations rise and rise and rise. They get very high. And the more options there are, the easier it is to regret anything that disappointed us with the other options we considered but didn't choose.

It's also easy to be disappointed with anything that's not positive about the thing we get. And all of this plays on us. When there are hundreds of different styles of an object that's available, and we buy one that disappoints, the only person we can blame is ourself. There's no excuse for failure because, well, we were the one who could have done better. And even if our decision is good, great. We still feel disappointed and we blame ourselves. And this has been found to be a significant contributor to the explosion of depression and suicide over the last years. People's standards are so high they feel fault for less than perfection. Now, there's no question that some choice is better than no choice. 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. Now, the power of choice is one of God's greatest gifts and challenges to all of us, to all of mankind. We were designed to make choices. You don't need to turn there. You know Genesis 2.16. God said to Adam and Eve, When my son was growing up, he very often would point out that God made a huge mistake by creating Satan and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Part of his journey, trying to figure it out. But the fact is, he was a very important person. He was a very important person. He was a very important person. He was a very important person. But the fact is, they were both put in the garden intentionally because God wanted mankind to learn to choose right. That's the reason they were there. God not only told Adam and Eve about a tree that they shouldn't eat, but he also told them about other laws and rules and commandments that they were supposed to follow. Please turn to Deuteronomy 30, verse 19, a very well-known verse. Our Heavenly Father gives you, He gives me the freedom of choice. It's a gift. And until each of us dies, our life represents this series of choices that's going to impact us and others. Deuteronomy 30, verse 19, I call heaven and earth as witnesses 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 beautiful freedom, this freedom of choice. He passionately wants us to choose life.

He wants us to serve Him. He doesn't want us to have, you know, to hold on to two ways of life, the Bible describes it as. He even gave us His Holy Spirit so that we could overcome our human nature. But from there, it's up to us.

And it's up to us whether we choose the option of life or death, right? Blessings or cursings. That's up to us. I'd like to initially start with some foundational concepts, not brilliant, foundational, about choice as it relates to God, because that's an important place for us to start. The first one is this. We need to first recognize that God set us the example of how to choose by first making positive, selfless, loving choices toward us. God set the example first by making positive, selfless, loving choices toward us. Classic example. The Bible says the Lamb of God was slain from the foundation of the earth. That means before anything was created, God knew mankind was going to fail, and Christ would have to sacrifice His life. That shows that we've been called because of God's love. Turn next to John 15, verses 16 through 17. John 15, 16 through 17. We have been called. We have been chosen to be God's disciples and to have this very intimate relationship with God in Christ. But He started it. John 15, verses. The way we pursue the choices in front of us is something that really matters a lot. That's why I chose the topic. Because it... Funny thing is, I was preparing it. Every single message I heard, anything I studied, all related with it, because everything we do in life is choices. So, if we decide, it can impact us very heavily. A lot of people like to go up to the very edge of the cliff of life choices. Just not over. That's a very dangerous place to be. If you have one too many drinks, if you decide not to pay one credit card, that then becomes two. If you say something that's mean or don't take the blame, follow with painful consequences. As best-selling leadership coach and author John Maxwell wrote, Life is a matter of choices, and every choice makes you.

Every choice makes you. Turn now to 1 Corinthians 2, 9-12. The next foundational concept we need to keep in mind is that we need God's Spirit to reveal spiritual things. We need God's Spirit to reveal spiritual things. 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 9. But as the year heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed them to us through His Holy 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 man which is in him, even so, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. People either think spiritual truths come from within or from outside.

Foundational. I think we frankly give too much reverence to things of people. We can say, wow, look at that amazing thing that somebody invented. Whoo! Look at that scientific discovery that somebody just learned about. Friends, those are physical things. A fundamental, a critical understanding is to realize that absolutely no spiritual truth comes from within us. The source of truth is Christ. We can't come up with concepts and say, yeah, but I can come up with some better ones or some equal ones. There's only one source of truth. Christ said that I am the way. I am the truth. So things along the lines of keeping a Saturday Sabbath or attending the feast or living toward others in a way that the Bible commands can seem silly. And they're just among a whole lot of things that the Bible says are spiritually discerned.

And God's Spirit is what reveals those to us. It is the way to understand. Otherwise, we just view the world through a lens that misses concepts that matter most. Let's go on to another foundational area. You'll find the length of the sermon, and then I'm going to get more complex on this here, but other foundational one. There are areas where God clearly commands what His will and His expectations are. Right? Ten commandments. They're an example of this. All of the commandments are choices.

They're this guide to what is right and wrong. And there are plenty of other direct statements in the Bible from God. He wants us to repent. He wants us to be baptized. He wants us to tithe. Friends, those are the clearer black and white areas from God where right choices are or should be easier to make.

Then, beyond this, there are also some areas where we can clearly discern the implied will of God. Right? The second great commandment is to love our neighbor as ourself. Okay, so we can imply from that some basic principles. We don't need do's and don'ts along the way if we simply treat others as we would want to be treated. But the truth is that there is so much more to choice beyond what God commands and what is implied, obviously, in the Bible.

That is why choices are tough.

Now, at this point, we start entering this gray area of life. I remember a comment that was said by one of our professors and ambassador, and he said, Thank God for the gray areas. It's there where God learns where our heart is. I like that.

How? Well, by our choices. We must move from do, do what's required, to become. Become like God. That's the journey we're supposed to be on. Let me now share some excerpts from another excellent TED Talk about choice by Ruth Chang, which this one has nearly 9 million views.

She started by saying, Think of a hard choice that you'll face in the near future. It might be between two careers. It might be between selecting a place to live, between two people to marry, whether to have children, whether an ailing parent should move in with you.

Chances are, the hard choice that you thought of was something that was big. Something that was momentous, something that meant something to you. Now, hard choices seem to be these occasions where we just agonize, right? We hand-ring, to use a biblical phrase, we gnash our teeth. Why? What makes a choice hard is the way the alternatives relate. And I want you to hold onto that, because you're going to notice that's going to relate more and more as we go forward. What makes a choice hard is the way the alternatives relate. In an easy choice, one alternative is better than the other. But in a hard choice, one alternative is better in some ways, the other is better in other ways, and neither is better overall. Ruchang argued that this fear of the unknown, this common motivation that we have when dealing with hard choices, rests on a big misconception. It's a mistake to think that in a hard choice, one alternative really is better than the other. Our nature, since we don't know which to pick, well, we naturally take the one of least resistance, the least risky choice, right? But even when two alternatives are placed before you, side by side, and you have all the information you need, they're still hard, right?

Hard choices are not hard because we're ignorant. Hard choices are hard because there is no best option. Okay, so now if there is no best option, if the scales don't tip in favor of one alternative over another, then surely they must be equally good. So maybe the right thing to say in hard choices is there between two equally good options. Do you buy that? That can't be right. See, if alternatives are equally good, then you should just flip a coin. You want to know what career to take? You want to know where to move to? You want to know who to marry? Flip a coin. That'll work. I don't see buyers. Let me give you another test to show equally good doesn't work. If you start with two things that are equally good, and you improve one, even a little itty bitty bit, then it must be better, right? Say, for example, you've improved a job that you're struggling between by $500, then that should be obviously better, right? But that's not the case with options and hard choices. Okay, so now we have this puzzle, right? We've got two jobs. Neither is better, nor are they equally good. How are we supposed to choose? Dr. Chang points out that the puzzle arises because of this unreflective assumption we make about value. We unwittingly assume that values like justice, beauty, kindness are akin to scientific qualities like length and mass and weight. Take the comparative question not involving value. So, which of two suitcases is heavier? There are only three options. One is more, they're equal, one is less, right? Those are your three options. And for anything that is scientific or that deals with two real numbers, those are your only options. We believe that in choices there are only three possibilities. She posed that there should be a fourth possibility when a hard choice faces us. And she used the phrase of on a par. So, when two things are on a par, it may matter, I'm sorry, it other than the other, but it may matter very much which we choose. Rather than the alternatives being in the same neighborhood of value, they can have very different kinds of value. You following me? Different way to look at choices we make every day. This way, it uncovers something about ourselves. Imagine a world where every choice was an easy choice. Meaning, there's always a better and a worse. Well, as rational beings, we would do the better thing. But when alternatives are on a par, it's in this space of hard choice and primitive powers. The power to create the identity for ourselves. When we put choices between options that are on a par, we can do something really rather remarkable. We put ourselves behind an option. Here is where I stand. I stand for working for an insurance company. Jeez. Truthfully, with real hard choices, you can see why free will to choose matters so much to God. Let me finish with the way she finished this because I think she put it very uniquely.

She finished her talk with the statement, 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 this space of hard choices, that we have the power to create reasons for ourselves to become the distinct people that we are. And that's why hard choices are not a curse, but a godsend. Interesting words that she chose.

Turn now to Acts 21, and we'll read verse 10 through 14. Acts 21 verse 10 through 14, and let's bring the spiritual side back in again. The next lesson to understand is that multiple choices can be led by the Holy Spirit, end in different opinions, and both be right. Think on that one.

Multiple choices can be led by the Holy Spirit, end in different opinions, and both be right. Acts 21 and verse 10 is an example. And as we state many days, a certain prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. When he had come to us, he took Paul's belt, bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus says the Holy Spirit, so shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.

Now when we heard these things, both we and those from that place pleaded with him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, What do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem, for the name of the Lord's sake.

I'm for the Lord Jesus. So when he could not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, The will of the Lord be done. So here we find two God-fearing groups who each interpret the prophet's message differently. What is the will of God? Was it the will of God for Paul to go? Was it the will of God for him not to go? All we know from the prophet's warning is that if Paul went, he'd be bound. Two different conclusions. Who was right? See, both can be led by the Holy Spirit and end in different opinions. You find a very similar situation in Acts 15, where Paul and Barnabas had this dispute over whether to take Mark with them on one of their apostolic journeys.

Because Mark went AWOL for some unknown reason that we're not told about. A better question to ask ourselves is, was God's will still advanced despite these disagreements? And in both these situations, it was. The point is there aren't perfect choices in most of what we face in life. Sometimes we can study. We can pray and still not fully know God's will. Because we don't walk around with a Urim and Thalman. Be interesting. But we don't walk around that way.

And the Bible is full of these examples of God's people coming to different conclusions with the same facts. And realize that same thing happens today. The Council of Elders makes administrative decisions. All of the elders are asked to pray and to fast before they cast a ballot. Far as I know, there's always dissension. I've never seen one that's 100% zero, but maybe there has been. I don't know. Now, some vote for a proposal, and others vote against it.

Which elders are right can both be guided by the Holy Spirit but disagree? Absolutely! The lesson is God influences and helps us as we collectively strive to learn to think like Him. God then teaches us through the resulting consequences, through the residual choices that we make, based on whatever initial choice was made. Now, I think this applies to us in a very real way. When opinions differ, do we choose to let ourselves get sucked into this polarized conversation that divides us?

Because remember the sources of these things. Satan loves division. He loves controversy. Or do we rather focus on being like our song was earlier, a united family and growing together in God's righteousness? God loves love and peace. We're to be peacemakers and we're to evaluate if our being right with an opinion is worth threatening the peace that God loves and is building. Okay, so let's move on to another key realization about our decisions.

There are all sorts of gray areas with choice. And if a person can clearly see two sides, with one being good and one being evil, rarely are they then torn what to choose. Now, let's separate this for a second. Outside of the process that James says Satan uses to attack our lusts, to attack our desires and sway us towards sin, we are rarely equally attracted to both good and evil. Life usually boils down to decisions between right and right.

Most of our decisions are between right and right. A classic example is if a married person debates if they should try to advance rapidly and get an evening NBA while working full-time. Or should they stay and help their partner with the kids at home? So you have this situation where you're like building financial ability to provide. Good. Compared with building strong family. Good. They're both right.

Choices between right and right aren't between perfect and less. They are choices between positive and negative consequences. Another important principle to think about. I'd like you to review a biblical example of this. I think one we can gloss over the parts that relate to it. Turn to Genesis 13, verses 7 through 13. Genesis 13, 7 through 13. See, we don't always think in the terms of consequences. We all, for being candid, we struggle with seeing the negative in something we really, really want to do. Right? But even if you set that aside, as we make tough decisions throughout our life, what we're doing is we're gaining experience. And hopefully we're gaining wisdom. But unfortunately, what we can easily do is follow a right choice by wrong choices. And we see an example of that here. Genesis 13, starting in verse 7. And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock. The Canaanites and the Parazites 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. Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from him. And to his decision was the residual choices that were going to follow. And we read that next. Then Lot chose for himself all, remember that word, all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east. And they separated from each other. Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent even as far as exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord. Remember what it said. Lot looked out and saw all the plain of the Jordan, and it was all well watered. The key mistake Lot made is placing his dwelling place next to, or literally it means, against the walls of Sodom.

And Chapter 14, now this is what scares me, so just bear with me fumbling over these names. But we'll give an example, so I'll start trying to read this in verse 1. And it came to pass in the day of Amraphal, king of Shinar, Arioch king of Elazar, Shirdur, Shirdur Lomor, king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations, that they made war with Barah king of Sodom, Shinab king of Admah, Shemabar king of Zeboam, and the kings of Bela, that is, Zor. All these joined together in the valley of Sidom, that is, the salt sea. Twelve years they served Chador Lomor, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled. Now go to verse 10. One 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 the possessions went their way. They also took Lot, Abraham'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 the Jordan, which are large, he became influenced to think that living in the plains isn't as desirable as living with those deeply evil.

And when Lot chose to live next to, or turned out potentially in, those two wicked cities over time, he got caught up in their society. How did those residual choices impact Lot? Some of them I think are obvious. One of them I don't know if I had not really caught until I started looking at this incident. Please turn to 2 Peter 2, verses 6-8. 2 Peter 2, 6-8. We know from what we just read that the cost was 12 years of oppression serving under this foreign ruler. We know he lost his wife. We know he lost his son-in-laws. We know that there was an ancestral son that came with his daughter. What Peter says is he suffered inner turmoil throughout this whole time. 2 Peter 2, 6. And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemning them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterwards would live unrighteously, 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 their lawless deeds. I don't know you, but I don't always think of Lot as righteous Lot. Let's mention it twice here. We likely all feel bothered by evil when we see it around us, when we see lawlessness abounding. Lot, we see, was constantly being bothered by the sins and the lawlessness that was around him. He had no choice to have his family in the middle of it that put him into all his circumstances.

Didn't Lot make the perfect choice? Sure he did. 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. We're all in this process of learning, and outcomes often link to the next, and the next, next choice that we make after making the first choice. We just like to blame the first choice. That may not have been where our problems stemmed from. There's no such thing as the perfect choice and the perfect decision that's going to guarantee everything after is going to work out. Cue Hollywood music in the background. It doesn't happen. There are just decisions, which are followed by another, and every decision is going to have a positive benefit or a negative consequence.

It was his bad, ongoing decisions after Lot's initial one that cost his future son-in-laws, that cost his wife. Even when he was being turmoil... going through turmoil, like Peter said, he could have left, but he didn't. With each choice, we must learn to make better decisions the next time. C.H. Spurgeon once said, discernment is knowing the difference between right and almost right. I think that's well said. And God is watching. He's watching what we're learning through our process of choosing. And even our mistakes. We're in training, right, to become kings and priests.

A lot of choices that we see and we make daily can just seem small. They're incidental, right? But the consequences can really be huge. To me, the classic example is Adam and Eve. What? Eat one fruit? That big of a deal? Well, you and I are still paying the cost for that decision.

Things spoken casually that we say can really hurt others terribly for a lifetime. Similarly, we can be helpful. We can have an impact for generations by what we do. The impact of our decisions reflects God's fruit working through us, His Holy Spirit, and if we're letting it impact and guide us. Let's transition to another important concept to understand about choice. Say you make perfect choices throughout your life. Would you then have a perfect life? Because if you think about things that we assume and when we get frustrated, we're working on that perceptual foundation, whether we want to admit it or not. The classic example to that one is the life story of Joseph. Potiphar's wife was making ongoing sexual advances toward him. This beautiful woman with a single man in an empty house throwing herself sexually at him over and over and over. Joseph had integrity, and he rejected that temptation. He overcame what countless men every day in this world do.

Joseph made the right choice. And how did that work out for him? It ended up with dire consequences of years in Egyptian jail where food and a bed aren't even given. See, we're in this process of learning that there's no such thing as perfect choices and perfect decisions and perfect outcomes.

If you're looking for that, you're missing the concept. The critical lesson is that Joseph continued making right choices daily, even in jail, and God blessed them. Many live their lives not thinking of these repercussions to the choices that we make. All choices have a consequence. Even not making a choice is a choice. Honestly, you can relate that very well with the Laodicean, the lukewarm way of thinking that reflects that approach to choices. It's this mindset of avoiding or doing nothing. And I can guarantee you, before we cast stones at that, that mindset also has a dozen reasons why they think that's the right way. But it goes back to spiritual discernment that God says. Now, let's consider how we're impacted by other people's choices, because this plays into it, too.

God permits bad and hurtful choices by people. God allows things to happen that are not according to his desire because he desires to allow all individuals to have free moral agency. In other words, the freedom to choose. But play that out. The result of that is innocent people, including God's people, will be victims.

Free moral agency is this crucial part of his plan because God wants to develop family members who choose righteous character. But to do so, that means others will also choose evil and impact good people.

God wants all to have the choice and to obey him or not. He could have made robots, but he chose wisely not to. How many of you are in love with your washing machine? It does what you want it to do, but there's no personal relationship, no area that you can rely on them in odd gray-area situations. 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 treasure, 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 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.

Wisdom can be defined as the proper application of knowledge and experience. But even beyond wisdom, we can be able to show good judgment, differentiating right and wrong.

So we're supposed to grow in wisdom and discernment so that we can be helped in daily decisions. We can consider the long-term consequences. That's what we're growing toward. And that helps us recognize an optimal choice. A knowledge of God's Word helps tremendously. But realize life's choices are not just about Scripture saying you can or you can't. The Bible wasn't designed to capture every single scenario that any human could possibly come up with.

And if we seek Him with all of our heart, He does promise to direct our paths. That is why we pray daily. That's why we ask for His will to guide us. Turn to Romans 12, verses 1-2. So in your prayers, pray for wisdom, pray for understanding, pray for discernment, pray for direction.

We can also learn a lot by seeking advice from wise people around here. You know, we have some amazingly wise stewards. Seek. The Bible says, you know, talk to the hoary head. Talk to the person who's experienced. 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 that's a set of Scripture that actually works best if you read it backwards.

To know the perfect will of God, right? Something we all want very, very much. We must transform our mind to think less carnally and more spiritually. We must not be conformed to the world, because being conformed is of dangerous ground with God. It goes back to what we read earlier about only spiritual things are determined by God's Spirit, not by our own best thinking.

From there, we must be transformed by renewing of our mind and surrender our will to God, which is our reasonable service. That's what's being said. Turn now to Hebrews 4 and verse 12. We're going to expand on this thought a little bit. Hebrews 4 and verse 12, and we're going to talk more about discernment. It says, God has us exercising our ability to see right and wrong throughout every day. It's this journey of not judging by appearances, of getting to know others, that helps us know how we can better love them, how we can reflect Christ more toward them. Hebrews 5.14, a chapter ahead for you, expands on this a little bit. Discernment is learned by constant practice, but I can't use that word in the way you would with something else. Practice. Anybody who's tried a sport, has learned an instrument, has tried mathematics, anything along those lines. You know that when you... you don't practice perfectly to start with, right? Give somebody a trumpet, crying out loud. You want them down in the basement with a mute.

We're going to make mistakes, but the process of practice is what leads us to perfection. Hebrews 5.14, but solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment, trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

We learn discernment through this process of testing and learning.

Effective decisions grow from sound judgment, and as we grow to differentiate right from wrong choices, we learn to factor in consequences. We learn to think about those things down the path, right? And we make wiser decisions. It's the way we're refining ourselves. It's actually the key way that God is shaping us.

But even understanding, even wisdom, even discernment are not enough. Easy example of that one. I mean, if wisdom was enough, if wisdom guaranteed you'd make right choices, Solomon should have been the perfect example of right decisions. Right? He was given this epic level of wisdom. Let me go back through the definitions. Wisdom is the proper application of knowledge and experience. Discernment is differentiating between right and wrong. Righteousness is choosing to go down the right path. We need righteousness.

As parents, we watch how our children work through a choice to see their thought process.

Will they seek input? Will they pray about a choice? God is doing the exact same thing with you and me. God wants to know if we want to please Him. Will we follow God's way? Will we believe what the Bible says? We've been given this amazing, incredible opportunity. Our biggest challenge as humans is we don't always trust God, and therefore we make bad decisions. That's why obedience is so critical to God.

If we don't obey the things that God has shown to clearly be His will, why would we think God would reveal any more information regarding His will for grey areas in our life? Let me just state that and think on that one. If we don't obey the things that God has shown to clearly be His will, why would we think God would reveal any more information regarding His will for grey areas in our life? That's why God wants us to focus on living righteously, not just getting through each day, not getting caught up on the physical things. God will guide us in life when we seek and obey Him. Turn to Proverbs 3, verses 5-7. Proverbs 3, 5-7. The more we have God living in us, the more we are surrendering to His Spirit and His will, the more we please God. And He tells us throughout the Bible how He wants us to live, how He wants us to process things, how He wants us to trust Him. Proverbs 3, verse 5. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your path. If you're wondering if your path can be directed, yes. Do not be wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord, and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh and strength to your bones. The Life Application Study Bible had really interesting thoughts on this one. So let me read this 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 ten 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 desire at the center of our planning, He will never disappoint us.

The Bible is full of all these examples of people who had a plan, and God had something else in mind. Think of Jonah.

Submitting and following God is a choice. God wants us to make plans. He wants us to aspire and do the best we can. That's critical parts of why He made us. But always remember and know in our mind that if God has a different plan, then that's what we want done. And Christ is the perfect example of that. Think of His prayer the night before He died. Not my creation, but our choices show God our priorities.

Living godly, lives can't include not sinning. Again, be realistic. That's the nature of what we're going for. That's why we're going to make our fumbling ways as we try to build wise choosing. We're going to make mistakes as the choice is... I'm sorry... And it goes back to that concept. The good choices come with practice. There are a habit. There's a habit we develop. A motto that I've personally tried to apply, even more so actually since Renee died, with all the different responsibilities that hit my way, whether I'd made a good decision before or I'd failed with the next right choice. Maybe something you embrace, because no matter where you're at in life, you can always think too far ahead and just stop and say, Make the next right choice. What's the next right choice? We make a choice and made a choice at baptism. But again, it's not just once and we're done. It's actually a choice that we make re-choice that we do. That's the way we develop godly character through daily choices, through learning to trust Him, through sacrificing our own desires, for looking forward to the Kingdom. They all fit together. Turn to Proverbs 2, verses 11 through 13. Proverbs 2, verses 11 through 13. Do your choice God is living in you? Do they reflect Christ's character? Look back on your choices from today. So far. How you treated others? How you used money? How you used your time? Did they reflect God's nature? Did they not? See, we either choose to serve God or we choose to serve our human reasoning. And that, again, when you look at the world from that way, it helps realize why we choose to pray and fast and study and meditate. Because we realize... First verse I read, or one of the first ones, spiritual discernment comes from God. We have zero, zilch, ability to do it on our own. That's where it starts. Proverbs 2, verse 11. Discretion will preserve you. Understanding will keep you. To deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perverted things. From those who leave the path of uprightness to walk in the way of darkness.

Making the right choice gives us the strength to make the next right choice. Or to make the same one again, if we're faced with it. It builds righteousness. It builds character. Do you ever feel that there's just no good way out? That you're just worn down? You're exhausted. I think, again, going back to the example of Joseph, is a great area to learn from.

He had to face a ton of dark realities, right? He was making right choices. And certainly when he was in jail, he had no idea how it was going to end out. But his lesson for our lives is if we stick to the right choices, our future will be excellent, just like his was.

Turn to 1 Corinthians 13, 1-3. The final area I want you to look at is a chapter you may not have equated with choices in the same way. Maybe you've never thought about it, but the love chapter is the choice chapter. Love is an action. Love is a choice. We do it because we want to, even when it's hard. Especially agape love. That's what makes it our highest calling. So let me make a slight adjustment in wording for the first three verses and see if that resonates a little bit.

1 Corinthians 13, verse 1. Though I speak with the tongue of men and of angels, but don't make the choice to have love, I have become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

And though I have the gift of prophecy and understanding 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 to do it.

Character is developed by this continual conscious choice of surrendering to God. Attitude is a daily choice. The attitude we approach things with... Man, my dad nailed that. For those who know my dad's sermon, he always would bring up attitude. But I've heard that ever since I was a child. Happiness, optimism, positivity, kindness, giving, respect, they're all choices. Our circumstances don't make us choose otherwise. We choose which attitude we pick. Every kid asks, are we there yet? So I'll turn that to you. Are you there yet in your choices? Well, of course not. God has not completed his work in our lives.

We are to finish product yet. Our character is being built. And along the way, we must become perfect. You know the verse. Matthew 5, 48 says, Therefore you shall be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect. Please realize that's translated incorrectly. Perfection isn't a state of existence. Perfect comes from the root word meaning end or goal. B is a future tense word meaning become. It's the goal. It's the standard set for us to grow toward.

I'd like to weave this concept of perfection, what we're reaching toward, in choice. I'm going to read three sentences to you and I'll repeat them again. But I want you to think through it because it summarizes what I have been trying to capture. Our calling is an exercise in discernment. The evidence being found in our choices. We're to live out our intent and in doing so, we move toward perfection like God is. None of us has suffered as much as Christ has. It's Bugger's How are we growing closer to God's character? We're to live out our intent in doing so, we move toward perfection like God is.

None of us has suffered as much as Christ has. But I think if we were being candid, we would all say there's times where we think our current challenges are more than we could stand. That's why Christ set the example for us. Jesus chose to go through all He did. It was a choice. He didn't choose the easy way that felt the best. He chose the way that gave us life.

And He did that because He loves us. Ultimately, God wants to confidently know we are able to make good and right decisions also. That's why He gave us free will. We can't. We won't make every decision perfect daily. We are going to make bad decisions. But those can and they should be learned from because it's what we become as we make choices, as we become a finished product that's most important.

And we're called to follow His lead. We're called to become part of God's family. And that's a beautiful thing. That's why I started with the voice that we've been given a choice between life and death. What God wants us to realize is that the choices we make make us. Choose wisely.