Principles for Making Good Decisions

It's always a pleasure to hear you sing especially such a beautiful song. And good afternoon to all of you. Boy, it seems like a lot more people now that I'm looking this direction. I don't know when you all snuck in after I sat down. But, as always, it's a pleasure to be back in Portsmouth. I'll have to pass on my regrets from my wife. Connor came down with a bit of sniffles. I think I've told several of you that this morning. He'd been up coughing during the night. And, you know, sniffly, it's not bad. We were debating whether to use the thermometer because he felt slightly warm but mostly normal. I don't know. Parents probably understand that. It's interesting that answer to question we had because the Cincinnati congregation is having a gym night there at the Y this evening. And then they're going to lock the teams in overnight. Last week, Mr. Meyers said the question isn't whether to lock them in. It's whether to let them out when it's over. But the thing is, Connor really wanted to go and use the swimming pool. So Sue was debating whether to come here with me today or stay there so he could go swimming. Poor thing. Now they get to do neither. I think they might be watching. So if you are there, I hope things are well. I tell her to say hi. I'm not sure if you could hear her from that far. But things have been going well there at the home office in ABC. It's interesting. It dawned on me. We just finished only our second week of having five days of classes.

Because as it was, orientation was the first Monday, then Labor Day, then Feast of Trumpets, then Feast Days. And of course we had a partial week after the feast. So when we finally had a five-day class week, we said, man, this is tiring! And of course, last week was our second one, but it was a bit out of the ordinary because Mr. McNeely and Mr. Meyers have been down in Texas for the personal appearance campaign. And I haven't heard from them directly, but I've been checking posts on Facebook. And so far it seems like it's going well.

Many of you have probably seen that. I think that the appearances in Dallas and then in San Antonio, they had around 50 people each that weren't already affiliated with the church. You know, a lot of members have come and filled out the hall, but that's doing pretty well. And they're down in Houston for the Sabbath, so they can be greeting Gary and Liz Smith for us. And then they'll be doing an appearance tomorrow. I'm looking forward to them coming back because two of our instructors have been gone.

Fortunately, Randy Stiver came down to present the module time last week, and they'll all be back on Tuesday, but Monday's going to be interesting. I told the students, I feel sorry for you because you're going to hear me all day.

So hopefully my voice won't give out. But it's been good. But as I said, it's always good to be back here. I'd like to start today with a riddle. Okay, so what is it that you do every day of your life that determines what your life will be like all the rest of the days of your life? I think this one won't be hard if you think about it. But it goes, what do you do every day of your life that determines what your life will be like all the rest of the days of your life?

The answer is, make decisions. We all make decisions, and decisions determine destiny. I like that alliteration. Decisions determine destiny. It's the decisions that you make, whether good or bad, right or wrong, that will, to a large degree, shape and direct your life into the future. Now, most of our decisions on a daily basis are pretty small, and those have limited impact. Do I have Cheerios or Corn Flakes? That might have some impact throughout the day, but it's not major.

Some decisions make a very large impact on the future. They affect our future happiness, health, our security. Those are the decisions that can either bring positive or negative effects that last a lifetime. I've been doing that in class a lot lately. And even some can go beyond our lifetime to affect our children and children's children. So it's a simple thing to consider. Small decisions can have small outcomes, but big decisions can have awesome consequences, lasting for a very long time. We think about the problems that we face, things in our family, the problems facing the nation, conditions around the world. These problems are largely the results of poor or even outright wrong decisions that have been made in the past.

Do you have stress in your life? Not all of it, but there's a chance that a pretty good bit of it is a result of bad decisions. Some probably your own. You can get a lot of stress from other people's bad decisions, too. It just now occurred to me. Unfortunately, some of you might have stress from some of my bad decisions, but I hope that's been to a minimum.

But I wanted today to discuss that and offer proposals of some principles for helping us to make good decisions. It's a very important subject. It relates to all of us throughout our entire lives. So even though this is going to be familiar sounding to many of you, I don't have any brand new principles you wouldn't have heard of. As a matter of fact, some of you are experienced enough. Perhaps you could give me some good advice to rewrite this for next time I might give it.

But it's something we all realize. Making good decisions goes a long way towards accomplishing anything that's important in our life. I want to start off for Scriptures turning to Deuteronomy 30.

Deuteronomy 30 and verse 19. This has long been one of my favorites, just partly for the way it's put and for what it means. Deuteronomy 30 and verse 19.

Moses, of course, after reiterating the law and some history to the Israelites, says, I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today. Witnesses today against you. I've set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life that both you and your descendants might live. I tend to look at this Scripture pointing out that there are two different ways. And then God gives us that opportunity. But it's worth noting that God doesn't say you could make a choice.

He says, choose life. He urges us. Make decisions. Of course, He wants us to make good ones. Life constantly presents a person with choices. And God doesn't want us to go through life in a state of indecision or putting these things off. I'll share. I heard a joke. I think it's Mr. Hanley shared this with me from Columbus. He talked about a young man who finally finished college and you know, you throw your hat up in the air. And one of the things he said is, Yahoo! No more tests! And there was an older man that said, All son, you're going to face tests. And most of them are multiple choice. That's what Deuteronomy 30.19 presents. A test. Multiple choice. Life, death, blessing, cursing. That one seems pretty easy.

Life can seem like, you know, in a car taking a journey down the road. And every now and then there's a Y in the road. You know, veer right, veer left. It's a subtle difference. Sometimes you come to a T in the road. You know, it's a lot more blatant. And the two choices are exact opposite directions. And of course, more often we come to those four ways. And you know, do I keep going forward? Do I turn to the right? Do I turn to the left? You might even consider doubling around and going back. I didn't consider if I should put a roundabout in here, but... It might be a good part of the analogy, because sometimes if you have trouble making a choice, what you do is just circle and circle and circle, and you're not getting anywhere. Making wrong choices on a road trip, yeah, it could lead you to a dead end. It could lead you a long way around, the wrong way.

But that's why it's important to have something to help us to make the right decisions. And what I'm thinking of here is a map. That's out of date. I know most people like to have a GPS. But when we're looking at this analogy, the GPS will tell you what to do, but not necessarily why. And I'm still a little distrustful. What if it tells me to go here and it doesn't know what I'm getting at?

As I said, I want to know which way to go, but also the broader perspective. Why should I turn left here? What do you mean, recalculating?

But God hasn't left us without a map, and I think you know the analogy here. His Word is like a map for our life's journey. It shows us not only what we should do, it gives us guidelines for making decisions, but it gives us a lot of the why.

So I've drawn from it today, and I'll confess that I got some advice from some older, more experienced ministers. That'll give this a little more credibility, I hope. I've drawn from it, and today I want to present six points on making decisions. I don't do numbered point sermons very often, but when I do, I don't know why. I think it's the part of me that likes to be a little mischievous and have six instead of seven. I wonder if I could have broke it down.

And actually, it looks like the Teen Bible study is over, am I right? I see too bad. I was going to say, we could play a prank on them. I'll say six, and when they walk in, I'll say, now for our 18th point, too late for that.

Anyways, having God as a partner and a decision-maker is something very important. So my first point is that we should ask God for wisdom and direction in making a decision. That's rightfully in the first place. Ask God. Ask Him for wisdom. Ask Him for direction.

Without Him, we're bound to make mistakes.

As I think about it, since we're human, even with Him, we're going to make mistakes, but hopefully fewer, smaller ones.

But many times when we make a poor decision, it's because we figure in our minds, oh, I have the ability to analyze the situation. I can figure out the variables. I'll go the right way.

We think we can do it, but if we look back over a lifetime, we'll have to admit, oftentimes, I thought I could do it on my own, but I was wrong.

Why does that happen?

Well, the next scripture I want to turn to is in Jeremiah 10, verse 23.

Jeremiah puts it very well. This is another scripture I like to turn to.

And this will describe, I think, the why we think we can make the right decision, and then oftentimes we don't, is because we're working with faulty equipment.

The human mind is a faulty piece of equipment, faulty for making the best decisions if it's incomplete.

Jeremiah 10, in verse 23, Jeremiah writes, Oh, Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself.

It's not in us to direct...it's not in man that walks to direct his steps. So it's just not in us to make the wise decisions on our own.

And human history in the state of world affairs provides proof for what that verse says. How many times has a supposed solution to a problem been the source of another problem? Sometimes a bigger one. I wrote some examples down. If you follow the news, think back 30 or 40 years to the United States foreign policy towards Afghanistan.

Back when Afghanistan was in conflict with the Soviet Union, we decided to get involved subtly, thinking we'd fix that problem.

And of course, that led to Osama bin Laden and things like that. How about the idea of we want more people to own homes in America. So let's increase the number of subprime mortgages. I never say that properly.

How about butter must be bad for you? Let's use hydrogenated vegetable oil.

And one of my favorites, deficit spending to fix the economy.

Things that we think are good ideas, but they lead to other problems.

And while we're in Jeremiah, we've got to turn it over to chapter 17 in verse 9. Although many of you I know have this memorized.

We can make the case not only is our mental equipment deficient in the first place, but we can add to that our natural propensity to lie to ourselves.

I've done it. I'd like to say I'd never do it again, but I'd probably do it while I'm standing up here. I hope not, but we fool ourselves and we're very susceptible to that deception.

Jeremiah 17.9 is where he wrote, The heart is deceitful above all things, and it's desperately wicked. Who can know it?

I sometimes wonder if that could have been translated. Well, what do you know? The heart's desperately wicked. We fool ourselves.

Our thoughts are continually being pulled by our flesh and blood with Satan's influence that's out there, making us think that what's wrong is actually right.

People never think they're making a bad choice.

You never sit down and say, well, this is a bad choice, but I'm going to do it anyways.

With that, I'm going to turn to Proverbs a number of times today. I would apologize, except it's never bad to read a lot of the Proverbs.

So I'm going to say, I'm doing you a favor. I'm going to have you turn and read a lot of Proverbs. And me, too.

This one is so important, God put it in there twice. You could either turn to Proverbs 14.12 or to Proverbs 16, verse 25.

I'm going to go to 16.25 because I want to read something else from Proverbs 16 next.

But here, God inspired this. There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end, it's the way of death.

Seems right. Seems good. It's the right choice to make.

But mostly because I lied to myself or my brain is defective.

Reminds me of the old thing talking about especially men. Boys, we're brain damaged. Mixed into our thinking, you know, are all these human traits? Jealousy, greed, vanity? I want to drop back to Proverbs 16 and verse 18.

I mentioned that pride.

Pride goes before destruction. A haughty spirit before a fall.

You know, our pride leads us to make some silly decisions.

If you'll turn with me over a couple pages more also to Proverbs 21. Proverbs 21 and verse 2.

This fits a lot of what we read in Jeremiah.

Every way of man is right in his own eyes.

You know, it seems right. But the Lord weighs the hearts.

When we let vanity and pride come into our thinking, it convinces us that, you know, the thing that we are choosing, the thing that we want to do, you know, is wise and good.

And funny, we've seen this, and I know you've all seen it, and I've done it, you know, even if others make that choice and they fail, what do we say? Yeah, they didn't make it, but this is me. This is me. I can do it differently. I won't fail. You know, these kind of things blind us to reality because we're trusting our fallible, limited human minds, rather than sometimes asking God to make those decisions or to lead us in those decisions. Asking Him to lend us wisdom.

Again, in Proverbs, if you'll go to chapter 3, Proverbs 3, we'll begin in verse 5.

. Here is what we need to do when we're going into a decision-making process. Proverbs 3, 5, Trust in the Eternal with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Don't lean on all your own understanding because the way of man is not in himself to direct his steps, and the heart's deceitful. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, the Great Creator, and He'll direct your paths. Don't be wise in your own eyes, but fear the Eternal and depart from evil, and it'll be health to your flesh and strength to your bones.

It's a very important thing for us to remember, and since the teens are here, and I can't fool them, I don't want to talk down to all of you, but it's important to remember that when you're younger, you just don't have as much experience. And so it's easier to be duped not only by yourself, but by others. I thought of the example, and I remember when I was younger, walking on a car lot and seeing something that really looked good, you know, and, oh, how much money do I have saved, put aside? And a good, experienced car salesman can size up a person and take advantage of him pretty quick, even if we are pretty experienced. And young people, especially, they tell them the things they want to hear, lead them in that direction, and next thing you know, he's got you backed into a corner, largely from lack of experience.

Yeah, there is one thing. Now, I'm not sure how it is with cars. I know generally for those who are under 18, there's limits on what type of binding contracts we can make, but I want to turn to the beginning of Scripture, back to the story of Genesis, and review this. I know, I think we know, well, we've reviewed this a lot of times, but it's such a good example, and it's a long ways from just a used car salesman selling someone a lemon, or something with defects that they don't see. Genesis 2, beginning in verse 15, this finishes the great epic of describing God's creation, renewing the surface of the earth, creating mankind in his own image and likeness, and says, Now, of course, it goes on from there to the next. And then, in the end, the Lord, God commanded the man, saying, you know, all these trees, you can freely eat. So I'm telling you, this is a good way to do. You can eat on any of these trees, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. Don't eat it. And the day that you eat it, you shall surely die.

Now, of course, it goes on from there to talk about how God looked at Adam. Well, if God knew this, maybe Adam looked at himself, and then he looked at all the animals that God brought to him and said, hey, they're all in pairs. And there's only one of me. And God, very quickly, according to his plan, made him a partner. So Adam and Eve were very quickly together.

I've been pondering. We were discussing this with the students at ABC as to when, you know, did he create Eve also on that sixth day? So it was a busy day, meeting all the animals, naming them, you know, taking a nice nap, wakes up with his wife.

And then sometime passes. I speculate as we go to chapter 3. I want to start in chapter 3. How long had it been? I doubt that this was day 8, but it couldn't have been too long. But in chapter 3, the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made. And by the way, I want to stop and remember, even if it had been several weeks, you know, I was talking with the students a lot about how, well, as I did in a sermon that I gave not long ago about the velocity of narrative, and it doesn't tell us how long it was, but I still can't imagine God letting him hang out naked for weeks and months and years.

But a little bit of time passed. It's not enough for them to have much experience. Adam and Eve were very inexperienced. And this serpent, of course, as Revelation tells us, that old, the dragon, that serpent of old, Satan the devil. That's who this was, not just a run-of-the-mill talking snake. And he talks to Eve. The woman says, As God indeed said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden. The woman said to the serpent, We can eat of the trees of the garden.

Just the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. And the serpent said to the woman, You shall not surely die. God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened. You'll be like God, knowing good and evil.

So then the woman, remembering her lack of experience, Oh, I hadn't heard this before. So she saw the tree look good for food. It was pleasant to the eyes. I wonder if it also smelled good, had a nice texture. I'm speculating there. But she saw it as a tree desirable to make one wise. And she took of the fruit and ate. And she also gave it to her husband with her and he ate. I said, it looked good, and they had little experience with something that looked healthy but was not. And so they fell under the wrong influence. Would have been a good idea. Let's wait till God comes around again and ask Him about this.

That Satan preyed on their inexperience, and they made a choice. It affected them the rest of their life. It affected their children. It's affected everyone, all of us, ever since then. The Bible has lots of examples of men and women who made some big decisions. Now, I should point out there are many that made good decisions. Some made bad ones with negative effects. I've talked before about Balaam. Balaam was somebody who had some kind of connection with God.

He's called a prophet. And boy, what a good example of bad choices. He just made bad choice after bad choice and ended up suffering for it. But let's consider some others. And I'm not going to turn there and read his story. It's in the latter part of Numbers. Think of Daniel and Joseph, both as young men had their whole world turned upside down.

Both of them, actually. Daniel was taken captive and taken to a strange land. Joseph was sold into slavery. But in both cases, no matter how bad things seemed, they kept their focus on God and his guidance, obeying his word, following the teaching that they had. They had the right beliefs, and our beliefs largely determined the decisions we make. Our beliefs underlie our decisions, and our decisions determine how we live our life, or determine what happens of our life.

So whenever our decisions are based on God's law, understanding right from wrong, we can resist those pressures from Satan, deceptions from society, even deceptions inside our own head. My heart is deceitful. It wants to tell me, it's okay. But if I look at what God's law says, well, no, I better trust it above my own human thinking. And I'm leading into, of course, the big question with that. If we want to ask God to guide our decision-making, how do we do that? How do we ask God for help? Well, we've just read several scriptures that mention studying His law, looking at the Bible, internalizing all those principles, and knowing those stories.

Let's turn to Psalm 19. Psalm 19 and verse 7. If we know God's law, learn it inside and out, it'll become a part of the way we look at choices, part of our decision-making process. Psalm 19, I'll begin in verse 7.

The law of the Eternal is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Eternal is sure, making wise the simple. That's something. Knowing God's law, getting it into your mind, changes who and what you are. And His testimony, His Word, can give wisdom. The statutes of the Eternal are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Eternal is pure, enlightening the eyes. If you've got God's law in your mind, you see things a little differently. As I said, I know, and I know most of you know, all of you know. More to be desired are they than gold. Yes, more than fine gold. Sweeter than honey in the honeycomb.

Moreover by them your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is great reward. It's interesting. Get that law in your heart. It's like a warning. Remember, you come up to that T in the road. Do I go right or left? If one's right and one's wrong, and God's Word is in your heart and in your mind, you almost hear a warning. Down there is trouble. Don't go down there. I think there's lots of times when my mom would tell me when I was younger, going that way leads to trouble. I wasn't always smart enough to listen. But that warning's there. And of course, we can ask for help directly.

We should be praying to God daily, probably several times a day, and asking Him for guidance, especially when a decision comes. I want to read from James 1 and verse 5. James 1 and 5 reminds us that if we ask, God will guide our decisions. He'll guide our thoughts. James 1 and 5, If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it'll be given to him.

Ask God. Ask Him for the wisdom. Pray and say, hey, talk it through. I've got this difficult choice. I'm thinking this, and this is probably what will happen, but there's the other option, and it'll do this. It's amazing how sometimes the answer comes to you even as you're in the process of doing it. I think when we connect our mind with God in prayer, we get feedback. Now, don't go expecting a voice. If that happens, there might be something else going on that you don't want.

But God works through our minds and directs us. And then next, this is starting off. First thing in any decision, look to God. Ask for wisdom. Ask for guidance. Second point, get all the facts. Get all the facts, and along with the facts, why is counsel? So get information. Because we're asking for God's help, it makes sense, though, that we should also do our own part. For good decision-making, it requires thorough and correct understanding of the situation. There's two steps that are very useful for that, that I just summed up.

Get all the information you can. That might include facts, figures, costs, potential benefits. And then input from other people who have some knowledge and experience that might be useful. One thing we should note, that can take time. It takes time to gather information and study it, and then find some people to ask about it. And I think that's okay, especially for big decisions.

Some big decisions you don't want to hurry. Don't ever rush a major decision. Baptism, the most important commitment you'll ever make, it's for eternity. Marriage comes second after that. Having children, buying a house, choosing your career, perhaps changing a career, taking even a job or quitting one, moving. All of these are big decisions that you don't want to, oh, I think I'll move to Seattle tomorrow. A lot of times you don't have that option anyways, but we want to take time. Now, back to Proverbs. Proverbs 21 and verse 5.

So, I want to address a little bit about the need for patience and taking our time so that we can get the information we need. You don't take your time and just watch cartoons. I know a five-year-old who would like to do that. But you use that time profitably. Proverbs 21 and 5. The plans of the diligent lead to plenty. But those of everyone who is hasty, snap judgments, quick decisions, surely to poverty.

So we want to take the time to think over these big decisions. Because when you make it, you're the one responsible for it. Other people might be affected by it, but you've got the responsibility for your decisions. And we all know patience is important in so many aspects of life. Almost nothing worthwhile happens instantly. Things take time. It can take time to understand a situation correctly. Because there's so many times many variables coming into it. I think of that especially when we think about business and occupation. The business environment today is so complicated.

And I'm the one without the experience. I haven't been through it the way some of you have, but I know it's complex. There's tax laws. There's insurance requirements. There's government regulations. And all that's in addition to needing to understand supply and demand and things like that. You could have the great skills to be a good store manager. Maybe you have the training for plumbing that you could be really good at it, or landscaping, whatever it is. And yet you could fail in business because of properly doing all the research to understand the outside factors. Things aside from your skill.

Each year, and I didn't look up exact numbers, but I know every year in the United States, thousands of businesses start up. And I think it's more than half of them close within a year. And oftentimes it's because someone rushed in without understanding all the variables. Now, a lot of times there are things that you just couldn't know. And you're not faulting anyone for that. But if you don't take the time to do research and understand the options, then that could be a fault.

So along with that, of course, also is drawing the experience of other people. Whatever information and data you gather, go to those who have been there before. You might meet someone who says, you know, I thought about trying the same thing, or even I did try that same thing two years ago. Wow, was that ever a big mistake? You know, I wouldn't have known it until I got into it.

See Proverbs 11, verse 14. If you'll turn there with me. Yeah, I'm a little dry today. Proverbs 11, verse 14. Where there is no counsel, the people fall. But in the multitude of counselors, there's safety. No counsel, good chance of falling. Multitude of counsel, there's where someone that's been there before could give you good advice. If you know a half a dozen people that have been there before, it might be even better. Page over, Proverbs 12, 15.

Principle that applies in many situations. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds counsel is wise. Of course, we always think we're right. That's one of the things I was saying in the earlier point. We think we're making a good and a wise decision. It's good to have someone else say, well, did you think about this? It's funny, it reminds me of how many times I've been up here making announcements. I sit down and Sue says, do you realize you said that? No, maybe I should have run this by you before. I didn't mean to say that.

Let's look also at Proverbs 15 and verse 22. Proverbs 15, 22. Without counsel, plans go awry. But in the multitude of counselors, they're established. Whenever I read these, I can't help but think about being at summer camp. Especially when we'd have the counselors get together for lunch meetings. I always thought, if this applies, I'm safe because I've got a multitude of counselors around me. Maybe that would be funnier if I were at camp when I said it.

It's interesting, I've been reading from the book of Proverbs, but there are some Proverbs not in the Bible that are still pretty useful. Like the old one that says, experience is the best teacher. But if you add to that, yeah, other people's experience. Other people's experience is the best teacher. I love the way Frank McCrady brings that out. He calls it OPE. That's the teacher you want. Other people's experience. But I found another one, and I don't remember where I got this, but another Proverb says, a bad scare sometimes is better than good advice. Still, it's better to watch someone else have that bad scare. So we want to seek wise counsel.

But it's worth remembering, don't let anyone have too much influence. Like I said, when you have a big decision that's yours to make, you alone will be responsible. So you don't want someone to have improper influence over you. And this is especially true the younger you are when you have less experience, except the one thing I want to add to that is when you're young, it's good to let your parents have a lot of influence. In most cases, nobody has your best interest closer at heart than your parents.

I'm imagining all of you who are parents here are thinking, yeah, that's right. And they know you better than anyone else. I think back to the times my mom gave me some really good advice that I didn't listen to. Well, it's been long enough ago, I don't remember every single time, but there were times it's like, yeah, she knew what was best. I thought I did. And she would often tell me, you think you know what you're doing, but you don't.

Of course, in looking for wise counsel, we can still look to God's word. I'll just quote this one, 1 Corinthians 10, verse 11. 1 Corinthians 10, verse 11 is where Paul, the Apostle Paul, was writing about the children of Israel coming out of Egypt, and they did this right, but they did that wrong, and they did that wrong, and they made mistake after a mistake, and they kept getting killed, not the same people getting killed, because it doesn't work that way. When 1 Corinthians 10, verse 11, he says, all these things happened to them as examples.

They were written for our admonition. So all those stories, they're not just Bible stories, they're for our admonition. And the Bible is full of good and bad examples. The book of Proverbs has tons of advice. It can help us in so many good circumstances. You know, it's especially got wisdom that's useful for making decisions. And I'll note, I noted here in my notes, I know I'm overlapping.

My last point said almost the same exact thing. But that's okay. When it comes to looking in God's Word for direction, that's worth double-dipping. So I think I can get away with that. I want to go back to Proverbs chapter 1. Proverbs 1, it's a reminder of this process and how it can work. Of course, it starts off saying these are the Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel.

To know wisdom and instruction. To perceive the words of understanding. To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, judgment, and equity. To give prudence to the simple. To the young man, knowledge, and discretion. I love that. If you don't already have it because you haven't been around that long, go to this book and get prudence, get knowledge. A wise man will hear and increase learning. And a man of understanding will attain to wise counsel.

That's one thing I've always thought they say. If you're not smart, act like you're someone who's smart. You know, if you don't have wisdom, go to where there is wisdom and follow that advice. Eventually you'll become wise. You'll grow in it. And a page over in Proverbs 3, verse 13. 3, 13 says, happy is the man who finds wisdom. That's sort of saying, yeah, you'll be happy because you'll make good decisions, not bad ones.

Happy is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding. He won't be making poor choices and suffering the consequences. And you think about it, decision making is all about applying wisdom. It's the ability to correctly analyze all those factors and make the best decision. Or putting it another way, another quote, is wisdom is the discipline of applying truth to one's life in the light of experience. This is another one I borrowed from, I heard Mr. Hanley give this in a sermon. It says, wisdom is the discipline of applying truth to one's life in light of experience.

And that experience could still be OPE, other people's experience, but apply that wisdom. So let me summarize point two to move on, is get the facts, get as many facts as you can, and much wise counsel, especially from God's Word. My third point, and this is, I hate putting things in the negative, maybe I should have worded it differently, but the way I've got it is, don't let emotion unduly influence your decision.

Don't let emotion have too much impact. I could have said, be subjective, keep your emotions in check. It's been said, no man can make a sound decision when his temper is ruffled. The heat of passion, you're angry, you don't make the best decisions. Anger tends to motivate us the wrong way. When you're hot under the collar, when you're angry about something, you'll do and say things that you normally wouldn't. Proverbs 14 and verse 29 comments on that.

Proverbs 14 verse 29, He who is slow to wrath has great understanding, but he was impulsive exalts folly. Slow to wrath, great understanding. That could say, you keep your anger out of it, you'll see how to make a good decision, but he who is impulsive, he who gets his dander up, makes foolish decisions. Think about pride also. I can do this. Remember earlier I said, but this is me.

I know it never worked for anyone else, but I can do it. Or when you're a kid, how much do you let the thought of someone calling you chicken? Come on, are you chicken? I'll show you who's chicken. I'll climb up that tower. I'll lick that flagpole in January. Or I dare you. I double dare you. Are you going to back down from a double dare? No, I can't do that. Especially guys. I've seen that. The teenage boys, okay, nobody's going to call me chicken. The girls are like, I'm not going to call you chicken. I'm going to call you a fool.

What are you doing? Feelings can be deceiving. They make us not see things as they are. You're all laughing, but you know it's true. We've all done it. I'm not talking down to any of you. I've done it. And how many people who are in love make a wrong decision and do things or say things they regret later? I don't need to elaborate on that too much.

We must be careful to not let emotions interfere with good decision-making. I will say, though, there's a place for the emotion. One of the things I like to say is, think about how you'll feel about it later on. Calm down the emotion now, but think, okay, am I going to be brokenhearted about this? Am I going to be upset at my...

Look down the road. How am I going to feel? Emotion is part of that. I still remember the last car I bought. The one that's out in the parking lot. I was shopping for a new car. I wanted a stick shift because that's what I like. And it was partly pride. And I remember when I was vacillating because they showed me this new type of transmission, they said it gets even better gas mileage than the stick shifts. Wow! I care about gas mileage. And Sue asked me something.

It went the way she didn't expect. Because she doesn't drive stick. She said, if you couldn't shift your own gears, would you miss it? And I said, well, yeah, I would miss it. Yeah, okay, that helps me make my decision. I'm still not sure if that was the best decision in a way. I was not sure if it was the best decision in a car, but later on we realized it would be nice if Sue could drive the car sometimes. That's why we went out and got another one just like it, but with the automatic.

But still, I wanted to look ahead and say, how am I going to feel about this later? But that's the place for the emotion. Consider it with calm coolness for where it will be later. And that's leading into the next point. I wanted to keep point three kind of short. The fourth point is to consider the long-range impact of your decision. I'll bet over the horizon, or try to imagine what's over the horizon.

Because how many of us have never said... Maybe that's not the way I want to word it. I'll bet all of us have said, if only I could do it over again. If only I could go back in time and do that differently. But it's not just us. I'll bet in human history that's happened billions of times. Probably more than once for each person that's ever lived.

But if someone is saying that or thinking it, they're admitting... He probably thought he was making a good decision, but now realizes it wasn't a good decision. And a deeply regretted decision often comes from not thinking through the consequences. You know, what's going to happen because of this? All decisions have consequences. All decisions have consequences. They're not all equal. I said earlier, small decisions, small consequences. Big decisions, awesome consequences. You know, if you're young and that car salesman convinces you to buy a car that's a lemon, yeah, you're going to waste some money.

You're going to have a lot of headaches. You know, a young person who jumps into bed with the wrong person without thinking it through, you know, could get a disease that would kill them or make them sterile the rest of your life. Now, that's just some examples. Let's turn back to Genesis, Chapter 27. Let's look at a case of someone who I think didn't think through the consequences. Genesis 27. This is one I haven't often thought of in this particular way, but when I did, I kind of liked the fact that, you know, someone made a hasty decision and didn't think through of where it would...

Actually, I think maybe she thought of where it would end up, but she didn't... It ended up different than she thought. This is, of course, when Isaac, the great patriarch son of Abraham, well, I shouldn't say no. No, he thought he was getting near the end of his life. Turned out he had decades yet to go, but, you know, I'm getting old.

I need to pass on my inheritance and a special blessing. So he calls his firstborn and gives him special instructions, and his wife, Rachel, was listening. No, his wife, Rebecca, was listening. Genesis 27, verse 5. Oh, it says here, Rebecca was listening. When Isaac spoke to Esau his son, and Esau went to the field to hunt game and bring it. So Rebecca spoke to Jacob, her son. Remember, they're twin sons, but earlier it tells us, Isaac loved Esau, Rebecca loved Jacob.

You know, that favoritism isn't good. And she said, I heard your father speak to Esau, your brothers, saying, Bring me game and make savory food for me, that I might eat it and bless you in the presence of the eternal before my death. And she says, Now therefore, my son, speaking to Jacob, listen to me, obey my voice according to what I command you. Go now to the flock, bring me two-choice kids of the goats.

I'll make savory food from them for your father, such as he loves. Then you'll take it to your father, that he may eat it, and he may bless you before his death. It's funny, Jacob hesitates. He's not a dummy. He says, Look, Esau, my brother's a hairy man, and I'm smooth-skinned. Perhaps father will feel me, and I'll seem to be a deceiver. I'll bring a curse on myself instead of a blessing.

This is what's telling. His mother said, Oh, let your curse be on me. Only obey my voice and go get him for me. Okay, most of us have seen that many, many times. But it's interesting that, in a sense, maybe a sort of curse did come on her. I'm not going to read through the story, but we know what happens. You know, he pulled off the ruse. Isaac conferred the blessing on Jacob. But, if reading earlier, we would know that God intended Jacob to have that blessing. God was going to work it out. Rebekah made a decision to step in. And what happened was, when Esau found out, he was mad. Mad enough to let emotion affect his decisions, he was going to kill Jacob. At least, that was his plan. So, the parents get together, we've got to send Jacob away. So Esau doesn't kill him. He went away, and he stayed away. And most Bible scholars think that Rebekah never saw Jacob again. He was gone for longer than she lived. Do you think that's what she had in mind when she stepped in there? I don't know. If she thought this through, maybe she would have... Maybe I'm reading too much into it for her, but... If she'd have thought, okay, wait a minute. God had this prophecy that Jacob would be preeminent. He'd get the greater blessing. I don't have to step in here.

But she did step in, and the result was... The thing that happened was what God had prophesied. But, because of her decision and how she did it, as I said, she never saw the son that she loved so much again. History, the narrative indicates that she passed away while he was still sojourning with Laban. And I'm guessing she didn't consider that. And we can look to human history to see many scars from people that didn't properly consider. One of the things that comes to mind, especially...

I think I've told you last winter, or the last couple years, I've been reading a lot about World War II history. And before World War II broke out, a lot of leaders of those great nations in Europe thought, well, we'll give in a little to Hitler and a little to Mussolini. That'll smooth things over. They didn't foresee that by giving in and by appeasing them, they were giving them greater power and energy with which to attack when the time came. Very few looked over that horizon. Winston Churchill was one leader who did. He was saying, let's think about what we're doing. He was trying to get people's attention.

They didn't pay attention. Look closer to home. For decades now, United States leaders have been engaging in deficit spending, which they say is going to help the economy. But the long-term result seems to be that their policies are almost certain to devastate the standard of living of future generations. And they haven't really helped all that much in the present. At least that's my take on it. I'm one of those Gen Xers who kind of grouses at the baby boomer politicians for some of those decisions.

But the point is, they've been making a decision that they thought would help, but they keep not looking at the long-term consequences. We don't want to make similar decisions in our own household. I want to turn to Proverbs 13 and verse 22. Proverbs 13, 22. And by the way, I'm not meaning to be a doom and gloom prophet or anything.

Just look at bad examples. Because for the most part, we're here celebrating examples of us making good decisions. It's just the bad ones make better stories, more interesting stories. Proverbs 13, 22. When we think of our own finances, a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children. And thinking of those long-term consequences, but the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous. So as we make decisions within our families, we want to consider how they'll affect the family next year.

How they'll affect the family the next decade. Decisions later. Decisions later. Generations later. That's one thing. Well, thinking of the positive, I'm kind of pleased when I look at a decision that was made in the church some months ago. That they said, we've got a plan for the future in our ministry.

Let's bite the bullet and hire some young men and make them trainees. They took care of short-term gaps, hiring experienced men as pastors. But I was fortunate to be there at the home office when they had all the new hires come in for training sessions. And it made me feel good because I said, that's planning for the future. Making decisions that might make it a little tougher for right now, but in the long-term, should bless the church and benefit.

Not only us, but those who are going to come into the church that God hasn't called yet. So, of course, all of us want to think about the long-term impact of our decisions. Reminds me, I gave a talk for the students recently using Andy Stanley's book, The Best Question Ever. He boils it down. I thought about just using that as part of my introduction. But he says, the best question is, what's the wise thing to do?

And that summarizes a lot of what I've said earlier. He also qualifies it. In some places, he would say, in light of my future hopes and dreams, what's the wise thing to do? Thinking ahead of what I hope the situation to be, what's the wise thing to do for that? It takes, again, patience. It takes a lot of effort and mental processes to go through thinking possible consequences.

But it's usually worth it. Okay, let's move on to point number five. And that's, do make a decision. Make a definite decision. That's an important part of it. I've got a quote from the author, William James. It says, there's no more miserable human being than one in whom is nothing but habitual indecision. It makes you miserable when you're constantly living with indecision. I'm going to go back to James chapter one, picking up, remember we read earlier that if you lack wisdom, ask God, and He gives liberally.

But He continues from there, and I cut it off wanting to come back at this point. But let Him ask in faith with no doubting. For He who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose he'll receive anything from the Lord. He's double-minded, a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. You know, if you say, oh, I need to do this. Well, maybe not. Maybe not. Give me this note. Don't give me that. It's exasperating to deal with someone who can't seem to make a decision on something. And I know because I've been that person.

I've been the one who hesitates and doesn't make decisions. I remember one year at summer camp I was in charge of a particular activity, and I didn't realize I was doing that. And one of the people working with me said, just make a decision. Oh, okay. You know, a person in that state tends to not take action. And if you do that, if you keep not making a decision, you have to put up with whatever comes your way. There is an old saying that says, any decision left unmade will eventually make itself. You leave a decision unmade, it'll be made for you.

But some people muddle through life that way, and they have to put up with a continual chain of negative consequences from decisions left unmade that make themselves. Now, we can speculate about how that happens, but I think in terms now as a parent of a young child, because some experts say that that happens in people whose parents never teach them how to make decisions or let them make decisions.

And of course, so we have to teach our children, and then sometimes stand back and let them make a choice, and sometimes let them suffer the consequences, as long as they're not too big of ones. It's a lot easier when they're five years old to let them suffer consequences of small decisions. But indecision, sometimes it results from lethargy or even a false idea of God's will. Some people will attribute anything and everything to God's will, and so they avoid making a decision. Are you going to stay for the social after church tonight? No, if it's God's will. Does that mean you're waiting for them to call you on your cell phone and tell you?

Usually it's the other way, though. Whatever happens, someone will say, well, I prayed about it, so this disaster is what God wanted to happen.

But God wants us to be active, you know, Christians. Active and decisive, not lethargic and just come what may. We do need to pray about our decisions and trust that God will guide us, but that doesn't mean that any old thing that comes along was necessarily God's will. There's the other steps, as I said. Get good advice. Seek all the information you can. Think about what'll happen.

We're training to be leaders in God's kingdom. That's something, during the Feast of Tabernacles, we think about more even than usual, about where to be kings and priests. We're going to be leaders. And leadership largely consists of making decisions, right decisions.

I had a quote from, you know, in the business world that's understood, because making right decisions is a very important part of leading other people. J.P. Morgan. J.P. Morgan, now we think of him as a bank, but it was a man who founded a banking business, but he said, was known to have said, I will pay more for the ability of a man to lead others than for any other asset. You know, rather than buying companies and this or that, he would be willing to pay for someone who was a good leader. And leading always involves making decisions.

I also have a quote. This is another one. An older minister shared me with me from Reader's Digest, because I've never had a subscription to Reader's Digest. But have you ever thought every minister must or should, because there's so many quotes and sermons from Reader's Digest? Or is that just me? Some of us should get them from others. Anyways, let me read the quote.

It says, Our lives are the sum of our decisions, whether in business or personal spheres. And in every decision, there comes the crucial point when you must make up your mind. Let me say that again. There comes a crucial point when you must make up your mind. Deciding too quickly can bring disastrous consequences. Delaying too long can mean missed opportunities. So there are some times when you decide is almost as important as what you decide. So in light of all the principles we've discussed, and I don't mean this to overrule those, but sometimes you juggle it all out and you still might not have, you might still have trouble, but the time comes and you've got a gut feeling.

Well, that gut feeling sometimes subconsciously is a, you know, your unconscious mind sees a pattern or the right decision that you haven't seen reasonably, or in your reasoning mind yet. Sometimes that's not the most common thing, but sometimes it's time, and you have to make the decision, trusting even that undefined mental gut feeling. If it turns out to be wrong, you'll learn and do better next time. With that, I'm reminded something. Rudy Rangel, in the media department, he's been a friend for a long time, and the more I'm around him, the more I respect his ability and also his smart thinking. He applied something. He said that Lauren Michaels, the long-time producer of Saturday Night Live, which sometimes it seems good, sometimes not so good, but Rudy said he took a lesson from him that he applies to some video projects.

And that's sometimes a project is done not because you've got it to where you want it to be, but because it's time to be done, and it just can't be put off anymore. He revealed that to me the last time he made a camp video, I think, because Rudy's been doing that, and he said, sometimes it's done because it's time. So, point five again is simply make the decision. And then, after all of that, then, six point, have faith in your decision and stick with it.

If you followed all the other points, you've got a right to have some confidence that you've made the best decision you can, so that's the point when you don't keep second-guessing yourself. Sticking with the decision is a matter of perseverance and follow-through. Now, I will point out that sometimes you clearly see, oh, I made a bad decision, sometimes there's time to back up and make a different one, but that's not usually the case.

Usually, it's best to stick with your plan and make it succeed. That's, I think, some of the intent behind what Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 9 and verse 10. Ecclesiastes 9 and 10, I flipped over there pretty quickly. I think many of you have it memorized. Whatever your hand finds to do, you could say, whatever decision you've made, do it with your might. And it goes on to say there's no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you're going, but it starts off with what your hand's found to do.

You've gone through the process. You've asked God for wisdom. You've studied, gotten the information. You've gotten advice. You've weighed everything, made the decision. Do it with your might. Make an effort to attain the result that you intended. Now, one example, I think, imagine you decide to go to college. Or maybe you're older, but you decided to enroll in a class to gain a particular skill. You made that decision. Doesn't it make sense then to attend class and study? Follow up on the decision. Make it work. I've got another one that... Sorry, I'm using a lot of slogans or cliches.

Well, I don't know if they're cliches, but slogans I've heard from other people. But this one I thought was pretty clever. It says, success comes in cans. Success comes in cans. Not pop-top cans, but cans as opposed to canots. You'll get success with the cans. The canots... Does that make...? I could have said cans. It looks better on paper. Trust me.

Another one of those is triumph. Triumph comes from a bit of try and a lot of oomph. But sometimes that's what it is. Put your hand to it and go at it. Make the best of the decision you've made. So to keep this one short and simple, have faith in your decision. Stick with it. God created each one of us with freedom of choice. If he hadn't, we'd all just be robots. We started in Genesis and we went through this scene with Adam and Eve.

I said, why in the world would God put that tree there in the first place? They all instinctively knew. He wanted us to be able to make choices. If he forced us to do the right thing, he wouldn't be reproducing children. He'd be making robots. With that, we're all going to make decisions. We make millions of them in our lifetimes. Sometimes we'll make mistakes. God made that so it's possible. But it's what we're going to accomplish in the long run that matters. Most of our decisions will be routine. As I said, life's a journey full of decisions. Which y to take, which branch. Some will be vital, though. There will be some big decisions that are going to have long-term consequences.

And when we have to make a big decision, if it's our decision, we're the one that's responsible. As we face big decisions, we should ask God for wisdom and direction. Ask him to help us understand all the factors involved. As we face big decisions, we should be sure to get all the facts and advice from other people. As we face big decisions, we should be sure that it's not emotion guiding those decisions. And we should be considering the long-range impact. And then we should make that decision and have faith in our choice, work to make it a success. Brethren, let's all strive in our life to make good decisions.