Sacred Decisions

Grab your message notes that look like this. This morning we continue our series "Every Day Sacred." We are going through the book of James in the Bible, which is all about making your everyday sacred, bringing your faith into everyday life. You say you have a Christian faith, okay that's great, but how does it affect the way you face tough times? How does it affect the way you talk? How does it affect the way you treat other people? Because it should have some effect. That's what the book of James is all about.

Now this morning we're gonna look at one of my favorite topics, sacred decisions. How do you bring your faith into your choices, into your decision-making process? Every day you and I make dozens of decisions, some of them very major. Many of you are grads this month and you are facing decisions that just loom like mountains in front of you. How does your faith affect that? How do you know if you're making the right choice?

At the end of one of my favorite movies, "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade." Anybody else like that movie? "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade." All right, at the end of it three travelers enter a mysterious cavern and there they see that the cavern is filled with many cups. One cup and only one will give the one who drinks from it long life. All the other cups bring instant death and one of the travelers, the evil one, wants to know which one is the right one. You must choose, but choose wisely, for as the true grail will bring you life, the false grail will take it from you.

Wow, so they're all false except for one. So the evil traveler looks at all the cups and he picks one that he sure is the right one, lifts it to his lips, drinks from it, and immediately his skin melts away as he becomes a living skeleton. Then his head explodes and he crumbles into dry dust on the cavern floor dead. And the guardian of the cave says, "He chose poorly."

Now, if you have a tough time making decisions, scenes like that haunt you because you see basically all of life like that. Every time you are faced with a choice you think, "There's only one right choice, one right house to live in, one right city to move to, one right job for me to take, one right college for me to go to, one right mate, one right car to buy." And you are so afraid you're gonna make a choice and that one day God will look at you and shake his head and say, "He chose poorly."

In my own life this has been one of the toughest battles. Indecision has just paralyzed me at times. So what does the Bible and specifically the book of James have to say about this? How can I know what God wants me to do? Now this is so important. James talks a lot about wise choices and he describes, it's interesting, he describes an indecisive person this way at the beginning of James 1:8. He says such a person is double-minded and unstable in all that they do.

In Greek, which is the original language of the New Testament, the word double-minded literally means "two-souled." Like your soul is being split down the middle, it's going in two different directions. Like William James said, "The most miserable person in the world is the person who is habitually indecisive." Why? Because life is full of decisions. Life is basically a series of choices that we have to make every single day. So if you have a hard time with choices you're gonna have a hard time with life. This is no minor issue. It has tortured some of you.

So let's look at God's solutions for that tension, some biblical guidelines for decision-making. Now I listed a bunch of resources at the bottom of the notes on page two for further study on this, but in the few minutes we have here today let's go over some guidelines about how I can make good, solid, wise decisions. I'm gonna start with the two verses in James 1 where Adrian left off last week, but then I want to show you verses from throughout James because James does talk about this topic so much and to try to make these a little bit easier to remember I outlined it so they start A B C D E. Ready? Here we go.

A stands for this. Ask God for wisdom. Ask God for wisdom. Here's where it all starts. You say, "Holy Spirit I am asking you to give me wisdom." James 1:5, first part of it says, "If any of you lacks wisdom he should ask God." Just to drive the point home I want you to circle the words ask God. Just every morning say, "Lord I really want to do your will today." That calms you down. It gets you focused.

You know when I was in high school I did a lot of idiotic things. I don't want you to get the wrong impression, but I did start one lifetime habit that was really good. Every single morning I got up and I actually knelt by my bed and I prayed one simple one-line prayer every day. I prayed, "God give me wit and wisdom." And I'm still waiting. No, that was a good life habit I started with then and I say it to this day can you just say that little prayer, "God give me wit and wisdom today." Ask God and then B may surprise you because the very next thing James talks about in the second half of that verse and you ask yourself how this relates to decision-making is this he says and you have to believe that God is good.

Ask God then believe he's good, believe he's generous and grace-filled and he's gonna answer that prayer he says ask God then next phrase who gives generously to all without finding fault and it will be given to him. Just to drive this home I want you to circle some phrases here. First circle gives. God's a giver. He's not stingy. In the original Greek language that word means he is continuously giving. He doesn't give you once and then stop when you ask for wisdom and circle generously. He's not parsimonious. His resources are unlimited and to all, not just to the super spiritual people. In fact, it says he gives to all without finding fault. What a blessing. He's a God of grace.

He doesn't ever say you know you don't deserve to have wisdom. You keep asking for wisdom then you keep doing stupid foolish stuff. I'm not gonna waste my time you have messed up one too many times. No, I'm not gonna give you wisdom anymore. No, he gives generously to all without finding fault. Now what happens when I don't believe God is good like this? James says next verse but when you ask him be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind.

Now around here in Santa Cruz we all know what that looks like a wave of the sea blown and tossed by the wind. He's saying this right here this is a picture of your soul. This is how unstable you feel emotionally, psychologically, spiritually when you are indecisive. You literally toss and turn all night long asking yourself did I make the right choice should I have decided something else you can't sleep you can't eat you constantly wonder about whether or not you made a good decision. Why? Because you ask God please guide but then you think but maybe he won't and so you look like this inside. Believe me I have been there many many times as I said this is something I struggle with in my life.

James is saying when you trust that God is good then you're not going to feel like this. Now let's dig into this a little bit deeper because I have to ask why do I sometimes get like that ocean? Why do I get so stressed about decision-making? I've thought about this a lot. For me and maybe I think for many of you here it comes down to two things. First honestly I think God might trick me right? Make it seem like aha I made it seem like that was my will over here but really I tricked you and this is my will over here you were tricked.

Now where do we get this idea of a trickster God? Well that comes out of Greek mythology or Norse mythology these pagan mythologies because in the Greek and Roman pagan religions like of James time the gods were not generous they were stingy you had to really just wrestle a gift out of their grip. They were inconsistent you never knew what they were going to do they were tricksters when it came to their relationship with human beings and sometimes that is exactly my image of God too but that's not the biblical image of God.

Look at this James says just a few verses later here's what God's like. Every good and perfect gift is from above. Coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights who does not change like shifting shadows. He's saying God's not going to be inconsistent like the Greek gods or stingy like the Greek gods or maybe like your human dad. Now he lavishes you with good gifts including direction when you ask and he does not change he is consistent about that.

You say but then how come I don't always sense his direction? We're gonna get to that in just a second. But then there's a second reason I get uptight about decision-making and I talk about this one a lot because I think this idea messes a lot of people up and it's this I think God's will is a dot. I think God's will is one dot and what I mean by this is I get this idea that there's this field of options out there like a field of dots all these things that I could do but only one dot is God's perfect will for me.

There's all those cups in the cavern but only one right choice and all the other choices lead to death. He only wants me to marry this person or go to this college or get this degree or work at this job in this place or buy that kind of a car this year and on and on and not that one and if I mess up I'm out of the dots. Now what's wrong with this idea? Well first it's not scriptural. Look at those verses in your notes how does the Bible model decision-making for you and me? It's interesting several times the Apostle Paul advises the Corinthian Christians on how to make decisions. Why? Because their culture was messed up when it came to decision-making.

If you know about Roman and Greek religions and really almost all the pagan religions the primary reason they went to temple was to get guidance from oracles or prophets who resided in the temple to kind of like they were fortune-tellers who told them whether or not it was a propitious idea for them to go into business or to move to that place or want to start a family and that if they didn't get good guidance from the oracle then they wouldn't make their choice. They would not make a move unless they found out what the oracle in the temple had to say about their decision and basically what Paul models to the Corinthians is that's how pagans make decisions they're worried about exactly the right choice according to the fortune teller that's not how Christians make decisions that's the pagan way of making decisions.

He says here's how Christians make decisions God gave you a brain use it just relax. Three I'll give you three examples 2nd Corinthians 9:7 Paul says how do you decide how much to give to the Lord he says everyone must make up his own mind as to how much to give underline that phrase make up his own mind this isn't a cult I'm not gonna tell you how much to give you have to make up your own mind.

Look at 1st Corinthians 10:27 if some unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience and he's giving him this advice because man if you go to a pagan house they might offer you food that had been sacrificed in an idol's temple is that okay or not and Paul's giving him advice on what to do he goes well if you like your neighbor invites you over there they're pagan Romans and you want to go then go over there and eat whatever's put before you without raising questions of conscience right he does not say well if they invite you over pray about it and if you get a clear leading then go to dinner with him but if you don't get a clear leading then don't go no he goes hmm do you want to go over to their house then go do you not want to go then you don't have to go Wow how freeing.

And look at this major choice 1st Corinthians 7:36 he's talking about marrying a longtime fiancé right and he says if anybody thinks he's acting improperly toward the Virgin he's engaged to these are just flesh-and-blood people and he feels he ought to marry he should do as he wants what circle that phrase he should do as he wants does he say pray for God to write your fiancé's name in the sky? No, he goes it's interesting because he actually doesn't even say pray about it although I'm sure that's understood but look at his emphasis he says do you want to get married to them then get married to them do you not want to marry them then don't.

This verse was so freeing for me I've told some of you before I agonized for literally years over whether or not to marry my wife Laurie. I don't even want to go into detail because it's too embarrassing but I kept changing my mind as in oh you're gonna hate me when I tell you this but I proposed twice and took it back twice. It is a miracle she stayed with me for 32 years as of last Valentine's Day because I was like you need a few for the phrase fear of missing out right FOMO well this was worse because it was fear of missing out on God's will so it was like FOMO gua or something like that I was just so freaked out I wasn't indecisive because I didn't want to marry her I did so much we had such a great time together we were fitted so perfectly but I was afraid I might miss the dot.

But this whole idea of there being only one person or one job or one career or one vocation for you it just doesn't make sense because think about it in terms of marriage for example if I was supposed to marry just one person and I accidentally married the wrong one I should have waited another 10 years right to meet the right one but then what happens to that person? Well that person out there was supposed to marry me but because I wasn't available anymore they had to marry the wrong one and the person they married was supposed to marry somebody else and they married the wrong one it sets off a chain reaction this is the reason for all our marriage troubles we're all married to the wrong person because somebody a thousand years ago made one wrong decision it's completely illogical.

This is so important because I have as a pastor I'm telling you I've had people come up to me and say basically I missed the dot and usually they're talking about two things who they married or their vocation. Now I know ten years on the job I should have gone into or the degree I should have gotten or now I know ten years on I met you know the love of my life I shouldn't have married this person and therefore for the rest of my life I've got to settle for second best with all my heart let me tell you that that is a lie if you don't get anything else in this message get this there is a lot more freedom in doing God's will than most of us ever really realize.

I mean there's so many ways I could illustrate this in the Bible but my time is limited so let me just give you one example think of the very first story in the Bible the biblical story of Adam and Eve they're in the Garden of Eden and God says you can eat any tree you want except for one tree because that one will kill you but any of the other trees go for he doesn't say pray for a leading about which is my will for you today no it's all like just choose you got the whole garden to choose from.

Now watch this in our minds when we imagine what God wants us to do we tend to inverse the ratio like God is saying don't eat from any tree in the garden except for the one tree that is the right tree for you you got to find that tree good luck because anything else you're sinning that's not how God works ever in the Bible. God says here are the rules he sets up parameters in the Bible moral boundaries and if we cross those moral boundaries we're sinning but all the other options you have freedom to choose from the trees in the garden. God's a God of grace he's a good God he gives you all this freedom but that begs the question what is the tree that's off-limits what are those moral boundaries?

This is so important that brings me to C center on scripture stay centered on scripture. Why is this important? You might be surprised at how many times as a pastor I have seen people get a sensation some kind of a quiver in their liver and they call it God's leading. I want to issue a churchwide challenge right now I'll give you a week and we'll announce the winner on Father's Day if somebody comes up with this but show me one example in the Bible of somebody interpreting a feeling or an emotion as the leading of God. It's not there now that doesn't mean feelings are unimportant it means feelings are unreliable. Your feelings can come from having a bad pizza but feelings are not unimportant but how do you know if a leading is from God something you want to do is from God? Well remember God's will never contradicts God's word right that's a basic feelings aren't wrong but feelings aren't authoritative God's word is and the most important things about God's will are in God's word.

James says a few verses later do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves do what it says. This is so good how does God's word help me make daily decisions? I want to show you a sentence that for me really gave me so much freedom. Ask not what is God's will for me ask what is God's will period. Isn't that a clarifying question not just what is God's will for me in this specific situation but like what's God's will in general because when you think about it you already know God's will it's in the Bible. God doesn't need to tell you what to do at every fork in the road he's already revealed his general plan for your life right in the Word of God.

You say what are you talking about? Look at this is so important look at James 3:17. James has just said in chapter 1 pray for wisdom and God will give it to you and now here he defines what that wisdom looks like. Here's what he's talking about when he's talking about wisdom and it's not whether to buy the Honda or the Toyota at the used car dealers. Here's what he's talking about the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure and then peace-loving considerate submissive full of mercy and good fruit impartial sincere that's God's will for your life.

Wisdom means learning how to live like that, somebody who has this kind of Christ-like character in your life no matter what vocation you choose, no matter who you marry in your family in your relationships no matter what city you're in be somebody who's peace-loving and considerate and full of mercy have the character of Christ and if you're moving into a decision where you can't be like this then you know that that decision is out of the will of God.

See what James is saying is God's will always has more to do with character than circumstance. Do you see? God wants you to have the right character and then the circumstances are going to take care of themselves. Okay now you might still go okay René I get what you're saying but I mean I still want to get God's guidance in specific circumstances how do I do that? Well don't forget to D determine to listen determine to listen to God's direction.

Okay well then how do I find God's direction if not just kind of through whatever my emotions are telling me? Well I've already said God's Word but also get it from other followers of Christ who you know are wise. James says you must all be quick to listen slow to speak quick to listen to what? Well first get advice get good advice Proverbs 9:20 listen to advice accept instruction. Do you accept instruction or are you just defensive all the time? And in the end you will be wise that's where wisdom comes from it.

Let me ask you this why is it that precisely when we are making a foolish decision that is when we don't want anybody's advice? If you're if you're going I know I'm not gonna I don't care what anybody says this is what I'm gonna do that's a deep crimson red warning flag get advice and then write this one in your notes get the facts get the facts. I love this verse get the facts at any price and hold on tightly to all the good sense you can get. You know I'm amazed at how many people get married without ever going to premarital counseling or ever really knowing their fiancé take a job just because it sounds good and never investigate the company move because they just get a feeling you need to get advice get the facts the Bible is very practical.

Okay so what about when I determined to listen listen to advice listen to God but then still how do I decide what decision to make? Well that brings us to the final point E expect direction but move ahead make a choice in one direction or another right again so much we could say about this but let me just say this true confession time for years I was messed up by a verse in the book of James in chapter 4 where he says you should not say today or tomorrow I'm gonna go to that city I'm gonna spend a year there I'm gonna do business and then I'm gonna come home. He says don't say that because you don't even know what's gonna happen tomorrow and I interpreted that verse to mean don't make any plans it's unspiritual to make any plans.

And I know a lot of younger Christians who when I like I was when I was younger get trapped in that I don't know whether or not this is God's will for me and so I'm not gonna do anything. I have heard that bad advice many times people saying if you don't have a clear leading from God then don't do a thing but that is not what James is saying. He says instead you ought to say well if it's the Lord's will that's how it's gonna turn out if it's the Lord's will then we will live and do this or that.

He does not say you ought to just sit there he's saying make plans go to that city try to do business for a year try to come home but qualify it by saying but of course God is sovereign and he can do whatever he wants. It's like Proverbs 16:9 Proverbs is kind of like the James of the Old Testament and it says we should make our plans counting on God to direct us. The Bible says it's okay to make plans move ahead and while you are moving forward expect God to make any mid-course corrections he wants to.

Now again so many of us are trapped in this idea that God's gonna make mid-course corrections by giving me some kind of a leading and what if I don't sense his leading? If you ask any older saint to look back in their lives like 10, 20, 30 years they'll tell you and during that time of chaos in my life I couldn't sense the leading from God and I wondered where God was but now looking back decades later I can see God was there the whole time and he was guiding me the whole time he was directing my path even though I didn't sense it.

Expecting God to redirect you doesn't mean you expect to always perceive it it means you have absolute trust in the sovereign will of God and that God in his sovereignty is going to work all things out together for good for his plan. This is so important because you can have paralysis by analysis. Some of you are here and you're saying but René how can I know for sure this decision is God's will? You know what you can't. Let me just tell you most of the times by life experience and observation and by scripture you can't and you don't have to know for sure whether or not it's God's will unless something's clearly laid out for you in Scripture. You can I will say you can rarely be a hundred percent sure.

In fact last summer I did a summer conference and one of the attendees was a Christian guy who was just finishing his PhD at Stanford and his specialty was decision-making and so I said I gotta ask him what he does is he advises these multi-billion dollar companies in the Silicon Valley about how to make decisions and so I said can I grab lunch with you and so I asked him this question I said what as your specialty is decision-making what misconception do you think most people have to fight against when it comes to decision-making and he said the idea that anything is ever a hundred percent.

He said almost no decision has a 100% guarantee that that's the right thing to do and if you wait for that a hundred percent you'll never do anything. He says you've got to go based on all the evidence I've got in front of me and as Christians based on God's Word whether or not this is a biblical thing to do I'm just gonna take chances and move forward and he says that's how you find out whether or not that's a good decision.

Somebody said finding God's will is like the doors at a grocery store they don't open if you just stand there looking at them they stay closed unless you're moving toward them then they open and life is like that so get going don't just do nothing until you get direction do what's in front of you with all your might counting on God's direction if he wants to redirect you amen that's the way to get stuff done.

Now I want to say because I know there's a lot of grads here let me just get very personal here with one illustration for my life. 25 years ago when I was asked to come and be the pastor here at Twin Lakes I was pastoring a church in Tahoe and it took me so long to make that choice. I was so indecisive in fact I was honest to goodness I was just freaking out it's almost embarrassing to reveal this now but I was here's how just fevered I was getting in my indecision I told my wife Lori what if Satan this is how I was thinking what if Satan is trying to tempt me away from ministry in Tahoe by luring me to Twin Lakes Church and Lori looks at me and she goes yes René this is how Satan works he tempts us with chances to do evangelism that's one of his most successful temptations.

But what helped me make the decision exactly these five points let me walk you through these first I asked God I prayed for direction in fact you know what I did I called a meeting of the whole church up there at Tahoe and I said Jesus is the head of this church so I don't want to just be praying about this let's all pray and here's the facts I want to listen to your advice listen to wisdom what do you think that we should do and I started getting note after note phone call after phone call saying René you know we love you but I believe God is saying you need to leave it was like thank you.

I think that was A. B believe God is good. Lori said René don't you believe that God is a God of grace? She said just relax if we go and we fail so what? God's gonna use that failure in your life. God his love for you is not based on your performance my love for you is not based on your performance our kids are preschoolers they'll never remember it's no big deal and hearing that yeah God's good it's okay that helped me calm down so that I could choose biblically.

And what I did was I read Paul's epistles to the Corinthians because I perceived the Bay Area and Santa Cruz as being a lot like Corinth and as I read what Paul wanted to do with the Corinthian church and he wanted to be all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some I got fired up and I thought I want to do ministry in a vital community where being a Christian and going to church is not the norm.

I got charged up about that and then D decide to listen. I asked advice specifically of Chip Ingram who at the time was the pastor at Santa Cruz Bible Church he'd ministered here you know what did he think did he think I could make a go of it down there and then finally I just made a decision. I said I believe the Lord could use me down there but if I'm wrong God can redirect me.

Now I want you to notice did I say I got a vision? Did I say I heard from God? Did I say I had a strong sense of calling? No none of those things but I went through these biblical steps and I said you know what I think this is a godly decision and God can use it whether I succeed or fail and so I'm just gonna move forward. God wants to set you free from the tyranny of indecision.

Now sometimes the decision might be in the affirmative like mine was sometimes it might be in the negative no you know what I'm gonna stay at the church I think either Twin Lakes Church or Sierra Community Church up until they were all trees in the garden would have been fine with God if I'd eaten from any one of those trees or any other trees in the garden except for what he details in the Bible is not his will is sin.

See what I'm saying? There's freedom there you can be set free from the tyranny of indecision and focus instead on your character. Now let me close with this the most important thing to remember listen carefully God doesn't want to just give you guidance he wants to be your guide in a real personal way and transform your character into the character of Christ and that's what this verse means very famous one of the most famous two verses in the Bible Proverbs 3:5-6 let's read this out loud together it's on the screen it's in your notes let me hear you trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.

The key word is trust because there will be times you make decisions and all the wheels fall off and you'll go what was I not in the will of God? I really tried to be in the will of God is that why everything's going wrong? Listen a lot of times people are in the dead center of God's will in the Bible and it looks like all the wheels are coming off that's when you need to trust God's got this. God is good God is sovereign and I trust him that he is going to use even this circumstance for his glory and so that makes this the bottom line the most important decision I can make is to trust in God.

See God's will is primarily found in relationship where you say to him I want to put my hand in yours and I will just trust that you are going to lead me guide me grow me wherever you want me to go and I would love to give you a chance to make that connection right now. Let's pray together would you bow your heads with me? God we all need your wisdom so much and some of us are facing so many decisions but this is an opportunity to make the most the most important decision ever and that's to have a relationship with you as our guide as our God as our Lord.

And so Lord I just want to lead in prayer people all across this room some for the very first time some as a recommitment praying God as much as I know how come into my life I want you to call the shots I want to be the person you want me to be this is the day I am choosing to make the big decision of who is going to be in charge in my life and it's not going to be culture and it's not just going to be my own needs and wants it's going to be God because I want to be a person of peace and of kindness that's going to change the world through Christ likeness.

To God come into my life and Lord others here are already followers of you but have a major decision that they're struggling with and so Lord we pray for wisdom trusting that your son help us most of all to be the kind of people you want us to be Christ-like people no matter what decision that we make in our lives help us to trust you for sovereign direction in our lives as we make our plans God you direct our steps and we pray this in Jesus name Amen.