Making Wise Decisions PART I
by Darrell W. Johns
Atlanta West Pentecostal Church (Lithia Springs, GA)
Kind: teaching
Scripture: Isaiah 28:16, Psalm 118:22-23, Acts 4:11, Ephesians 2:20, 2 Corinthians 6:14, Exodus 20:3, Proverbs 4:23, Ruth 1:21, Matthew 26:39, James 4:13-17, James 1:5, Colossians 3:15, Proverbs 3:5-6

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/darrell-w-johns--making-wise-decisions-part-i
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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we all make decisions daily and many of the decisions that we make are inconsequential such as the color clothing that you chose to wear to church tonight or to watch church online tonight for fear of some serious thunderstorms that could come in i haven't decided whether to preach short or long to miss the thunderstorms so pray for me that the lord will give me wisdom to make a good decision a wise decision but then for example what you chose to eat today may be considered a minor decision today but it could become a weighty decision later several years ago we were talking about this and brother david turner shared with me that bad decisions make good stories the best missions trips i've ever taken students on the best stories were the things that went wrong and speaking of missions we're excited brother jacob barker he's leaving next tuesday i believe going to uruguay for a year and we're going to support him in prayer financially and sunday we'll pray over him at the end of service albert kama said that life is the sum of all your choices your decisions truly do determine your destiny and i'm talking about the values that you embrace the friends you choose the habits you form the vocation you select the spouse you marry if you choose to marry the proximity you have to the church and your involvement in the church and in the old testament the church was in the middle everybody camped around the church the church was not at the periphery it was in the center of their lives and that decision that people make is destiny altering amen all of these decisions and many more can have serious consequences consequences in your life so in effect you can choose to do just about whatever you want to do in life but you don't get to choose the consequences of your decisions you make the decision and it has a consequence as a result of that both good and bad it's not always negative consequences are predetermined based on your choices and the laws of sowing and reaping that god established in his word i believe that the laws of sowing and reaping supersede god's forgiveness and mercy and grace there's some choices that people make that god forgives them of the act and the sin but their consequences they live through and not in my notes tonight but i've said in times past that while you're reaping a bad harvest from bad seeds sung know that the principle also works if you start today or yesterday or tomorrow and sow good seeds the law works and it will pay off in your life if you sow seeds of godliness in your life and there's the law of unintended consequences some things you didn't think about that happened that you didn't foresee ralph waldo emerson said if you sow a thought you reap an action if you sow an act you reap a habit if you sow a habit you reap a character if you sow a character you reap a destiny it's so important and i remember typing those words and thinking about that and how serious you know the decisions people make can be my brother t.l craft that i mentioned often a pastoral mentor to me that i served for you know almost 10 years he said you know eternity's doors swing on little hinges and those little hinges are the decisions people make think about the decision to walk out of a seat and repent or sit where a person is and turn away from their sins and toward god that seems like such a small hinge in life but it has eternal consequences so if if you're at a place in your life of making critical decisions it's important to contemplate that decision not be impulsive and patience don't leap at that decision if it's a major decision then you need to prayerfully consider it and make a good decision bad decisions can have devastating consequences and good decisions can bring the blessings of god in your life so i'm going to try to share practical principles there are ten of them my goal is to share five tonight and five next wednesday night lord willing and for everyone who abhors alliteration you know using the same letter for every point it just worked out that way when i designed this series so i'm going to talk about these 10 things principles purpose priorities prayer peace of god precedent perspective of counsel people patience and process i don't profess that this is the final word or this is the ten like this is not the ten commandments okay it's my best effort to try to to think through making wise decisions and maybe you could distill this down maybe you could expand it that would give you all something to do personal study and really i'm i'm encouraging that so the first thing is that principles must underlie good decisions we make decisions based on biblical principles a principle is a fundamental truth or a proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of belief or behavior or a chain or a line of reasoning biblical principles are the foundation upon which our lives should be built you've heard me say this many times we believe in the practice of the gifts of the spirit but the apostle peter said we have a more sure word of prophecy holy men of god wrote as they were moved by the holy ghost jesus said not one tiny punctuation mark a jot or a tittle will pass jesus said heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall never pass away so when you build your life on the principle of god's word it is a sure foundation and you'll never have to be ashamed never have to flee the bible says so principles are perfect people are not and we should strive to live a principled life and when we fall short we should repent and reach back for that principle i noticed numbers of years ago i should have had this in my notes but i didn't that the bible doesn't really tell us what to do when you fall 10 steps below his ideal he gives us the principle he gives us one step back it's called repentance and after your two three four five steps below that ideal god doesn't really deal with all of those steps that would be below that at atlanta west we have this saying that we say pretty often and every year in our employees and volunteer meeting if you mess up fess up and make it right that's all you can do and resist the temptation though to try to conform the principle to your behavior to try to make god's word match your mistake we have to confess not like adam and eve who run and hide and cover and blame blame shift but accept responsibility make it right and then reach for the principle that god established and this idea of principles is the idea of the cornerstone in the bible so this is a principle but this is a basis for making decisions the bible teaches that jesus christ is the chief cornerstone isaiah 28 16 therefore thus saith the lord god behold i lay in zion for a foundation a stone a try stone a precious cornerstone a sure foundation he that believeth shall not make case in the king james but it means shall not be forced to flee once you make that your foundation like the wise man that built his house upon the rock dig deep luke 6 i talked about sunday you'll never have anything that will happen in your life that will force you to abandon the position of being built on that foundation isaiah prophesied about that psalm 118 22-23 the stone which the builders refused is become the head of the corner this is the lord's doing it is marvelous in our eyes matthew 21 jesus quoted that psalm identifying himself as that cornerstone in acts chapter 4 you know verse 11 acts 10 4 10 4 11 he's become the head of the corner paul in ephesians 2 spoke about our relationship with god gentiles we're no more strangers and foreigners but we're fellow citizens of the kingdom of god we're like a building fitly framed together that grows up to the lord and he said we're built on ephesians 2 20 the foundation of the apostles and prophets jesus christ himself being the chief cornerstone so when you see an example in the bible you want to understand what the thing that is being illustrated is like if jesus says that the kingdom of god is like a gate or a door whatever that is we want to understand what that does so we can then make the proper application so a cornerstone most of you have already figured that out long before tonight but the cornerstone foundation stone is the first stone if you were constructing a solid stone structure the cornerstone is at the corner it's the first stone that is laid now some cornerstones are more ceremonially ceremonial and they'll put something inside that stone you know that says something about that building but from a building perspective from the bible it was the most important stone that was ever laid because every stone laid after that stone was referenced back to it every stone down the first row was had to be lined up to the cornerstone and as as rows were added as you know stones or bricks were laid they all referenced back to that point of origin that cornerstone and in our lives this cornerstone principle means that everything we do should be referenced back to the chief cornerstone jesus christ and if it doesn't align to him when i say him i'm speaking of jesus as revealed in his word if it doesn't align to him the practice of our culture is to move the point of origin i've already said this in another way they try to move the cornerstone to align truth to their behavior instead of aligning their behavior to the cornerstone so this principle is important and i believe it is the fundamental principle for making wise decisions you line up to the cornerstone so you think through and you look back if you hear an idea whether it is in school or in college if it's at work or anywhere in culture you should always hold it up to the bible and you can only do that if you know your bible thank god for all the bible readers at atlanta west i love people who already are ahead of me and are thinking this through because you've read it and studied it on your own that's not uncomfortable to me i think it's awesome that we have spiritual godly bible study mature people in our church that could teach this same lesson but you hold that you hold the bible heal that principle up to your bible that that decision and see how does how does it compare now i'm gonna do this to the cornerstone and if it doesn't line up then you change the decision what about your world view your belief about the nature of human beings made in the image of god male and female i've never had that in my notes till this year but we see what's going on in our culture and the gradual erosion of our moral values biblical principles so we could talk about holiness standards which we believe external holiness but we've got people dealing with pretty fundamental issues about the nature of human beings your friends your activities your dress and behavior far too many people make life-altering decisions without regard to the cornerstone no wonder in our world so many lives are like buildings that are leaning over and about to collapse because they have not been framed by that cornerstone thank god that we know where jesus christ belongs in our life he is a second or third just imagine in a building if you get this idea what if you move the cornerstone down one stone or up one level and now your point of reference is something else it doesn't work there that's why the bible says in a couple of passages i referred to that he was the stone that the builders rejected or they set aside said it not the king james says so in the jewish religion in jesus's day they're building their religion and jesus comes along and they try to see where they can fit him in some say you're a teacher from come from god you're a rabbi the reason he was accused of blasphemy is he being a man made himself god he identified himself as god in flesh as the cornerstone and when they saw where he knew he needed to be and he didn't fit there in their world they just threw him away crucified him set him aside but that's what peter said in acts 4 but god made him the head of the coroner so that's the cornerstone principle and i know you've got it but by our biblical convictions should be based on this word conviction should be based on the bible i should say it that way they should be seen in our life they should not change and they should be consistent one with the other you've heard me say this before maybe but the bible is not a rule book but it is a road map it is the owner's manual that god gave us for life so why would you not want to consult the owner's manual when a light is flashing in your light life that something is wrong and you can try to figure it out yourself and go tinker around like lots of men would be tempted to do why would you want to read the instructions you'll figure it out eventually right but get the owner's manual and let god guide you to doing the right thing when you disregard biblical principles you set yourself up for shipwreck and heartache and this faulty structure that is not built on the cornerstone heaven and earth shall pass away but my word shall never pass away so that's first principle i've taken a little longer on that because it really is the cornerstone principle secondly your purpose in making a decision you should ask yourself if this decision if i make this decision how does that line up to my purpose in life now if i was teaching this to middle schoolers or senior high students or even younger college students and i know you're here tonight many of you are you may still be trying to figure that out i was 18 years old on a missions trip to korea you've heard me refer to that trying to figure out what god wanted me to do with my life i did not know that i had a call to preach i thought i might but i wasn't sure and the last thing i wanted to do was to call myself to preach because the idea of doing what i'm doing now scared me out of my mind i had no internal desire to get behind a pulpit and teach or preach that was not something that i was just anxious to do so i understand what it is like to try to know your purpose so then you can say does this line up to my purpose and when if i was teaching on the will of god to students which i've done many times and i shared a lesson with some people in our church recently on the will of god sometimes the will of god is like a puzzle you don't know what the entire picture is but you know what to do first right you put the perimeter in and my wife's the puzzle master in our family for me just go by the picture why would you buy a thousand pieces does it make any sense to me you know but she likes that thousand piece thing i like the final product but she's more patient but things like that than me but sometimes you don't know what the final picture is going to be so you just put the pieces in place that you know are right and early on before you know the full picture of your life and we don't know the full picture till we take our last breath you do what you know based on your life purpose in rick warren's book the purpose-driven life which years ago he taught an entire series on and many of you bought the book he said several things that i think he got this right that we were planning for god's pleasure so the first thing about our purpose is that we belong to god and we are designed for him secondly he wrote that we were formed for god's family we have a place of fellowship in the body of christ we are created to become like jesus christ so we should have a lifelong commitment to discipleship and being like him we were shaped for serving god there is a place for every one of us in the body of christ if we're in the body we have a function and we were made for a mission amen that's kind of this whole idea of your purpose and we want to know our mission in life and try to make sure that our decisions are aligned to that mission in our church we we teach this process called shape your spiritual gifts your heart your abilities your personality and your experiences we want to help people know their spiritual shape so that they can find their place in ministry sometimes we serve where we're needed i don't feel a calling to take out trash or push down the trash that's overflowing and every waste can no matter where it is a restaurant the campground it's my mission in life but i do that because i care about that as a citizen and the person that's coming behind me but i really don't feel a calling to that maybe i do but i don't feel a calling to that but i know it's a need and i don't need the lord to speak to me about picking up trash off the floor should walk in here on monday walk around on sunday afternoon a little bit that would be a gift all of us should pray for picking up the stuff around us i learned as a bad boy at the age of 16 to pick it up not pass it up you know it was a little mantra so anyway well i'm really off my notes right but my purpose in life determines how i spend my time and my talents and my treasure that we talk about a lot i should really ask does this decision fit god's plan for my life and i mentioned this a while ago but as an older teenager when i started feel god calling me to something i didn't know what i think first it was relationship and then ministry there are some things that were not blatant sin but i started to feel uncomfortable about like others can maybe do that but that i can't do that that doesn't fit me and there are some decisions i made and i'm not trying to sound holier than now or self-righteous but i look back on that i have the perspective of history right after you get a little older and can look back and see what god was forming in me the decision that was my had was affected by my purpose i learned that god was calling me amen there are some callings in life that require a higher degree of commitment if you read the qualifications and the pastoral epistles for a deacon or a bishop that's higher than other people and john maxwell wrote you have to give up to go up and if you think that you want to lead an organization whoever leads it really has the fewest rights of anyone else that's just part of leadership so there may be things that are not sinful but that shouldn't be your question does this fit into my life does this fit my purpose is this compatible with i want to with what i want to do in my early ministry my late 20s i believe if i remember right a man who was a minister who was by vocational he was a businessman and pretty well to do had multiple businesses and he felt like i maybe had some gifts of administration and management and he came to me and he offered me an opportunity to work part-time for him and manage a particular business i could do this i'd drive right by it on my way home every day and he gave me an amount of money that was pretty a lot to me at that time twenty thousand dollars in the eighties part-time you know thing that i could do supposedly in my sleep and i prayed about that and i talked to my pastor my boss and it wasn't wrong it wasn't bad but it for me just for daryl jones because i had some some friends that are bivocational that are tremendous business people but that that is just not who i am and the lord is not just kind of guiding me away from that i know for me that's not a sin for my friend but for me i'm not saying it would be a sin but it doesn't match my purpose how does this fit my purpose in life why would you want to spend your life in detours and distractions and defeat all because you didn't know your purpose and you made decisions that were not compatible with the the purpose that god had called you to one thing about your purpose you know when we're teaching on dating and marriage and relationships we talk about this this unequal yoke and when you read about the unequal yoke in second corinthians chapter six be not an equally yoked together with unbelievers we typically think that that has to do with dating and marriage and the application is true there but this really has to do with a broader application that my life purpose affects who i yoke with who i get in a contractual relationship with who i'm bound to in a way that i can't easily extricate myself i can't get out of that relationship that's a principle of my purpose in life third principle priorities so based on biblical principles and my life purpose now i can kind of see what my priorities should be in life now for all of us you could say seek ye first the kingdom of god and his righteousness and all these things all the needs of life shall be added unto you that's jesus in the sermon on the mount not in my notes as a reference but we understand that everybody could say that that my priority is the cornerstone is jesus seeking him first but what is most important in my life the first commandment tells us in exodus 23 thou shalt have no other gods before me so if i need a priority obviously my priority is god the word priority is the fact or condition of being regarded or treated as more important it's a thing that is regarded as more important than another something is superior and something is subordinated right so this is more important than that has a higher priority in my life when i was here trying out my favorite not really expression about you know being considered to become a pastor 39 years old met our church board and after i was elected i spoke to our church and i said these are my priorities in life and i'll have to say that you have to always press order into disorder my walk with god my marriage our boys and then this church and i said that from the beginning it's always difficult to keep that right but i felt like it was right and if i would do that right that one relationship would serve the other like proverbs 4 23 says to keep thine heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life it's a wellspring of life so if you get this right your walk with god then it now serves the next most important relationship that's what a priority is you know what is most important and you know what is less important that's what a priority really is you set one thing above or below another in time management and managing tasks you know there's a lot of people that are much better at this than me but way back in the day my trusty daytimer you know you can label those priorities starting one two three or abc or 1a if you want to get really fancy about it but however you do that in your life whether you're scheduling a day or a week or a year or you're thinking about what's important to you in life you should know what is most important to you and then what comes after that what is negotiable for you and what is non-negotiable for a church here and when i teach leaders it is not our doctrine our message is non-negotiable it is not for sale our mission is non-negotiable it is not for sale the color of the walls that's negotiable when we have church that's negotiable what we do when we come that's non-negotiable we're going to worship and preach the word so if you don't know what is for sale what's negotiable and what is not if you don't know your priorities then you're making decisions by pressures peer pressure financial pressure time pressure and not living in ordered life now on any given day on any given day you're probably a lot better than me but i can tell you you i have to work really hard at practicing this and trying to make sure i get this right because there is no perfect day for me and i doubt there is for you so you try to think through what needs to be done when it needs to be done when does this need to be done and how does it need to be done by whom should it be done is this something i should do or something that someone else is better at or has the margin to do that i don't and then in what order should these things be done i have this little memory of a day in jackson mississippi when i had several errands to run and this is i i've used a daytimer a physical daytimer and i use evernote and we use base camp we have planning center of all these tools that are really good and helpful but i've used a physical daytimer since i was a freshman in bible a senior in bible college so maybe 46 years or so every month put that little insert in there tear off those little tabs every day hopefully you have a week and you can tear them off and throw them away you didn't write anything down that's called a vacation and i wrote an article several years ago about i just put a week in my pocket and guess what everybody's going to be fine and i'm better for it so and when you see my article for july you'll laugh at me if you know me but it's still true the art of doing nothing anyway our nature is to put off what we dread and when we do it usually creates more dread it gets worse things that we put off often get abandoned and the thing that we defer and delay if it's a priority there are consequences that may not show up immediately but they show up down the road ultimately when they show up it's usually bigger and better than it was in the beginning so for example that oil change that you need to take care of in your car deferred maintenance is always more expensive than doing routine maintenance the leaky roof at your house or the foundation that has problems those things if they're neglected become much much worse and they seem to be a minor aggravation today but tomorrow they can cause you lots and lots of trouble and as a pastor i'm not in the business of leaky roofs or oil changes i care about that because i have a vehicle and a home so it's just as important to me as it is to you but i typically don't spend my time reminding you to change your oil that's not really my role but what really matters is relationships right and things that we should not postpone we tend to make decisions based on pressures or priorities do you remember when herodius's daughter came in and danced before herod and he foolishly asked her that he would give her anything she wanted to half the kingdom her mother's bidding she asked for the head of john the baptist on a platter and the bible said that he was exceedingly sorry exceeding sorry yet for his oath's sake and for the sakes which sat with him and they were eating with him so peer pressure peer pressure caused him to kill the man of god in his life so if fear is driving us we can make really bad decisions there's a story about about priorities in the book of judges in fact this is how the book of judges opens and i'll try to make this a concise story elimelech and naomi they live in bethlehem judah judges one and there is a famine in the land it doesn't say that they prayed about it it just says because of the pressure they were feeling from the famine that elimelech naomi their two boys maelon and chileon they left bethlehem judah and they went down to moab now if you read the story they got there and they probably stayed longer than they intended to be there they so journeyed there in fact they were there so long that their boys got married to moabitess women girls that were not in the church and over time elimelech died the husband and then the two sons died and naomi is left alone in moab with their two moabites daughters-in-law who are not evil people they were generally good good girls and so of course naomi comes home with ruth ray ruth's excuse me ruth comes home with naomi and the women of the city see her coming down the road and and they start asking is is this naomi this is that woman who left here however many years ago over 10 years we know and her sons are now dead the bible said that she said to them call me not naomi but call me mara or bitterness for the almighty has dealt very bitterly with me ruth 1 21 on the screens i went out full and the lord had brought me home again empty why they call me naomi seeing the lord have testified against me and the almighty hath afflicted me naomi said when i look back the decision that we made to leave bethlehem judah in a tough time was obviously not the right decision and i thought i left in a famine but in hindsight in retrospect we really went out full we had family we had fellowship we were home and somehow i'm reading this into the story god would have gotten him through the famine but the pressure of the famine caused him to make a decision of judgment based on that priority and they left where god ordained them and there were serious consequences of course by the mercies of god the lord allowed ruth to marry boaz and their son is in the lineage of jesus christ which is an amazing story if your priorities are right god will bless you whether it's his will for you to stay or go he'll guide you if we place finances over faith you might take a job even if it is not best for your family or your faith be driven by economics rather than principles i've seen through my lifetime people relocate to places and the last thing they think about is the church we have people that relocate this is atlanta people will always come and go but when they say you know there's a good church there and i have a job opportunity there and i feel like it's the right thing and we pray but putting god first in that decision that priority makes a lot of difference i pray and i hope that when people think about moving to atlanta they say oh atlanta west you don't want to go there well there's other choices right god should be the first factor number four priority number four or principle number four rather principle is prayer now you're shocked that i would put this in this list right prayer it is hard to pray right and live wrong you should make every decision a matter of prayer maybe not what color you were to church tonight but decisions that you make should be matters of prayer held up to the bible many poor decisions could have been averted if people would have taken them to the lord in prayer and we know that prayer is always subject to the bible i can feel something in prayer but i have to reference it back to the bible to make sure it matches the scripture and isn't just a crazy idea that i had while i was praying the bible guides my praying we shouldn't pray a myth as james wrote about or falsely for something we really want to do and we force god's will into that or we think we are we should pray pray like jesus did matthew 26 39 and he went a little further and fell on his face and prayed saying o my father if it be possible let this cup pass for me never the less not as i will but as thou will not my will but your will be done in another gospel that is a hard prayer to pray when you really want to do something if you don't want to do something this easy prayer to pray oh lord not my will but your will i didn't want to do that anyway but if you didn't want to die if you didn't want to become sin you know he that knew no sin became sin for us i think that was in the cup you know of suffering james wrote this in james 4 i'm reading the new living translation look look here you who say today or tomorrow we're going to a certain town we're going to stay there a year we will do business there and make a profit how do you know what your life will be like tomorrow your life is like the morning fog it is here a little while then it is gone what you ought to say is if the lord wants us to we will live and do this or that otherwise james said you're boasting about your own pretentious plans and all such boasting is evil remember it is a sin to know what you want to do and then not do it i like the new living translation of that passage so we want to pray about it if the lord will then we're going to do that we should pray for wisdom in making decisions james 1 and 5. if any of you lack wisdom let him ask of god that give it to all men liberally and upbraideth not he doesn't rebuke you for asking and that shall be given him now this verse is not about the word of wisdom a gift of the spirit it is about a gift of wisdom an acquired wisdom when you read the book of proverbs wisdom should be sought after like gold or silver you mine it out of the word of god you mine it out of life through reading and prayer and observation and listening wisdom isn't just gifted to you but james said if you'll ask god for wisdom he'll give it to you and he'll help you you can pray when you pray pray for patience that's another entire point next wednesday night lord willing final point for tonight the peace of god is more than an emotion but the bible says that we have peace with god and peace isn't just a tranquil filling feeling babbling brook and the birds are singing you know that's not what peace really is about in the bible peace is the absence of war peace is reconciliation and we have peace with god when we are saved amen peace with god but i'm talking about the peace of god that god gives you when you're making decisions peace is one way god rules in your life to guide a decision and when he rules there is peace i love this verse colossians 3 15 it is one of those life verses for me and let the peace of god rule in your hearts to which also you were called in one body and be thankful now the word rule here is really a fascinating word in the original language if the judge makes a ruling you get that idea right if the umpire makes a ruling you understand that well the greek word for rule here is umpire someone who renders verdicts who says you're safe or you're out okay that's the idea it takes a connotation of of control that that umpire is in control of your life and he has the right to say yes or no he has the right to say stay or go he has a right to say him or not him her or not her that job that school whatever that is i'm not trying to be too specific here but it means that jesus christ in our life that the peace of god is that decisive factor that he gives is okay now peace can be a feeling and if it violates the word of god remember the word of god is supreme it's above every emotion or feeling or holy ghost intuition that we think we have but peace is like the arbiter the factor that we give pressness and when when you're making a decision and there's a lot of turmoil you don't feel good about it the umpire of your life saying no that's not right that's not me you know that gnawing feeling now i have to say that in our years of marriage my wife i believe has a better sense of that i'm going to call the gut feeling that that spiritual intuition that i might have four reasons since she has one feeling and it could be better than my reasons but i've tried to cultivate spiritual sensitivity now when you're making a really big decision there can be some anxiety fear you know you can play out a hundred scenarios in your mind and what if this and what if that i am blessed and cursed with the detailed mind i ask too many questions many years ago staff in jackson were looking at trying to buy health insurance and i met with the guy i asked all my questions he met with david river my close friend who worked there he said you have any questions she said i don't have any questions because i know he asked every possible question just sign me up he said that's what we should do so that's sometimes that's good and sometimes that's bad okay i'm just going to say and and i also i want to know every possible option but you know you can do that forever eventually you have to say i have researched this widget long enough buy the widget it's five dollars or whatever that is right some decisions are much more you know we just made a pretty major purchase and want to make a good decision but here's what i know eventually i have to pray through my questions and my options i'm not talking about buying a widget right now to know god where are you in this and the lord through other ways you know when we move from jackson to saint louis we look through many ways the lord confirmed that when we were kind of resistant to that when you were trying to decide on us in 1995 we were trying to decide on you and that may you may think that that you were the prize but this was my life and family this is where we plan to put down our roots for years and years and years so i don't want to make a mistake and you need the holy ghost to come to you in times like that and say yes before this church voted i preached thursday friday we had a picnic on saturday sunday i taught the sunday school lesson there was a break three o'clock sunday school 415 worship and went out and came in and when i walked in the back door there was a back door right there then when i walked in the back door and walked down that aisle i felt something come over me that you were to be the pastor here and i knew i didn't know what the vote would be because i can't control people's decisions but i knew for me that i needed i desperately needed to know and in the next year i really needed to know the first year here if you were here i needed to know that when you take your family to atlanta to become the pastor there if those precious people allow you an opportunity to become your pastor whatever a vote is for a pastor it's an opportunity to become the pastor a pastor is a relationship it is earned every day and you don't quit earning it if you've been the pastor 27 years if you think you do you're a fool so say that's every preacher that watches this later the peace of god is not the only factor in making wise decisions but it's a major factor principles purpose priorities prayer and the peace of god if you're able please stand next wednesday lord willing i'll teach on precedent the perspective of counsel the people that are affected and involved in that decision patience and then how do you process a bigger decision in life for tonight i want to leave you with what is kind of my life verse i love doctrinal verses but when it comes to the course of life proverbs 3 5 and 6 trust in the lord with all thine heart and lean not to thine own understanding i've had the privilege of working around some of the most brilliant people you can imagine geniuses but i watched geniuses go into false doctrine because sometimes intellectualism is not a problem but pride and intellect is just like pride and money and pride and talent it's the pride that goes before destruction and the holy spirit for a fall so when you when you have when you think you're smart [Music] and you lean to your understanding you're really a fool but you trust in the lord with all your heart it means to lean on him and lean not to your understanding for six in all thy ways in every facet of your life every decision you make acknowledge him make him part of that decision don't exclude god from the decisions that you're making he's not a liability to you he's not trying to confine you or hurt you he's your greatest resource and your greatest asset in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths amen if you have a few moments you'd like to just come and let the lord minister to you or you like to talk to the lord about any of these principles of decision making these altars are open now if you need to go i know many of you have had a very long day we're going to spend a little bit of time in prayer tonight before we go asking the lord to help us make wise decisions wise decisions based on principles purpose priorities prayer and the peace of god