Wisdom and Making Decisions
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Thank you. Thank you. And grow in decisions. So, one of the worst decisions that I've made in our 10 years of marriage came in year one. Shocker. So, we moved to Louisville, Kentucky to go to seminary and we really wanted a dog.
So, Friday came, getting ready to go find this animal. It's across the river in Indiana. Look at the weather and my wife says, hey, there are, they're calling for tornadoes. Should we wait until tomorrow? And I said, because I'm from South Carolina and I know all about tornadoes. I said, nah, we'll be fine.
It's a bunch of hype. Like, they hype it up and all of a sudden, like, you know, it blows a trailer or a car over. It's not that big of a deal. We'll be fine. Get in the car. Let's go.
So, 30 minutes up the road. I look at the sky and it's green. It's a color I've never seen before. And it was mildly terrifying. I was turning to AM radio. Sure enough, tornadoes had been spotted.
So, we take cover in a gas station. They were kind of talking it up like, oh, yeah, this tornado hit this town, this town. And I kind of looked outside as, you know, a professional meteorologist and said, you know, it cleared up a little bit. Let's go for it. Get back in the car. Drive about a mile down the road and the bottom dropped out.
I mean, sheets of rain, wind howling. A police and an ambulance took cover. And I said, oh, no. Fishtailed the car right back to the gas station. And we hunkered down. My wife was huddling the toilet because that was the one thing that had in-ground plumbing, questioning her decision to marry me.
And for 15 minutes, wind was pounding and shaking the gas station. Rain was falling. And finally, it stopped. Called my dad. I was like, look, we are in this part of Kentucky about a crossover of the river. Can you, are we good?
Like, can we actually go and get this dog? Still committed to getting the dog. He said, yeah, it's passed over. Went and got the dog. On the way back, saw some of the destruction. Turns out, in the Midwest, they mean business when they say tornadoes.
It's a different ball game. About 30 miles west of where we were was a town called Henrysville. When an F5 tornado a mile wide leveled that town and killed 37 people. And then when it came to the Kentucky-Indiana line where we were, it turned into thunderstorms. When it picked back up into eastern Kentucky, it turned into an F3 tornado. It was a big learning experience.
And it was a terrible decision. Because that dog has ended up being the worst dog I've ever had. I loathe this creature. We've had him for 10 years. He's awful. If you've been around my house, you know this.
He's terrible. And it almost got us killed. It was a bad decision for so many reasons. And I look back at that. And, you know, not since we moved back. I feel like I've made a lot better decisions.
I've left all my bad decisions in Kentucky. But I look at that and I look at some of the other ways that I've made decisions. And realized that I just, I kind of made it from my gut. I was like, yeah, we'll be fine. And it put us in dire consequences. Death.
Right? It just made the decision from the gut and thought it was going to be okay. Not realizing that the Midwest, when they have tornado events, they mean something. That's a lot bigger deal. I could have done a lot of things. I could have done more research.
I could have called the people who I just met and been becoming friends with and just asked them, hey, when, you know, when the Torkon says 10 out of 10, is that a big deal? And they would have said, yes. No one's going anywhere. Hunker down. Like I could have learned a lot of things. But I didn't.
I didn't. I made a quick decision. We ran with it. And it almost cost us dearly. Well, it did cost us dearly in the fact that we got that dog. But this is what happens.
And the Proverbs has wisdom for us. It has wisdom for us in how to make decisions. And that's what we're going to look at today. We're going to look at the wisdom that the Proverbs gives us on decision making. If some of you have made decisions, you're going to make decisions, right? What are you going to study in school?
Are you going to play this sport or that sport? What college are you going to go to? What will you major in when you get there? What Job are you going to take? Where are you going to take a job? Who are you going to date?
Are you going to marry this person? Right? How long are you going to work? Are you going to retire? When are you going to retire? What are you going to do in your retirement?
You have a lot of decisions that show up in life. And the Proverbs gives us some principles in how to make those decisions wisely. And that's what we're going to look at today. We're going to open God's word. We're going to see from the Proverbs five different principles for how to make wise decisions. So let me pray and then we will jump into the text.
Father, we thank you that you've given us your word. God, I pray that you would absolutely open our hearts to receive it. I pray that we would not hear this and reject it, but we would be doers of the word. And we would implement these principles so that we can grow in decision making. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
All right. So these are five different principles that come from the Proverbs. These are not necessarily step by step. You can choose to do that if you want to. All right.
But sometimes decisions that, you know, life is messy. All right. But these are five different principles that you should apply from the Proverbs in order to be wise decision makers. So first principle. Slow down. Slow down.
And I have some kind of directives if you want. This helps your head. It helps your brain a little bit. Stop. When you go to make a decision, stop. All right.
The problem is, is that we make decisions too quickly because we think we're right. We think we're the best source of knowledge. Proverbs 12, 15 says, the way of the fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice. We think we're right in our own eyes. We think our wisdom and what we're drawing from is the way to go. And listen, the problem is, is that we're wrong.
The problem is, is that we are actually a lot of times ignorant. And it's okay to be ignorant. Ignorant does not mean stupid. Ignorant means you lack knowledge. And the reality is, on a whole host of issues in life, you don't know what you don't know. You are ignorant.
And wisdom is embracing this, acknowledging that yes, you are ignorant, but in your ignorance, you would choose to operate wisely. You choose to seek and to grow and to learn and to not move quickly. And that is the problem. Proverbs 19, 2 says, desire without knowledge is not good. And whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way. Proverbs 21, 5 says, the plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance.
But everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty. The problem is, is that we are too hasty. We operate too quickly. We see something. We make a decision. We don't do our diligence, our due diligence in deciding.
So you see this a lot of times in real estate. You'll see some people get excited about opening a restaurant. And they get excited. They pull their money together. They say, we're going to buy this building. We're going to open a restaurant.
They buy the building. They pour a million dollars into renovating to get all excited about this restaurant. And then right when they're getting ready to open, they realize they didn't check the ordinances of that area. And they can't get a beer and liquor license, which if you do restaurants, is very important to your bottom line. And they're stuck because they can't do anything. This happens all the time.
People get excited. They jump on something. They move too hastily. And it leads to, as the proverb says, poverty. It leads to self-destruction. Younger people, and when I say younger people, I mean under the age of 40, we are notoriously bad at this.
Setting on a decision when you are my age feels like an eternity. Right? Because we're like, go. Come on. Let's go.
Let's make a decision. Let's pull the trigger. Let's do something. That's how we operate. You know, people say, well, we love each other. So, come on.
Let's just go ahead. Let's get married. People say, oh, yeah, the job, it's in a city. It pays more. Sure. Take it.
Let's do this. We move too quickly. And while that can save a lot of time on the front end, you pay for it in the back end. Right? It makes life a lot more difficult. It makes what happens out of that even harder, especially when you cut corners.
If you've ever done a home project where you cut corners, where you move too quickly, you know you'll pay for it. With a day's more of work, with five more trips to Lowe's, it happens. When you move too hastily, you end up paying for it in the end. I want you to think of, and seriously, I want you to actually think about this. I want you to think of the decisions you've made in the past that were very bad. You've got some.
Maybe not getting caught in a tornado death bad. But you've got some decisions you can pull from that were bad. Ask yourself, how quickly did you make those decisions? A couple of minutes? A couple of hours? A day or two?
How long did it take you to make a decision? The reason that we need to slow down is we need time to process. We need time to evaluate whether this is wise, whether this is good, whether this is what God wants us to do. If you don't do that, you operate from your own gut. And as we saw before, we think we're wise in our own eyes. We think our gut is accurate.
And a lot of times, it is not. You have to train yourself to pump the brakes. Stop. When you've got a big decision, even some of the smaller decisions, just slow down and stop. Don't move too hastily. Once you've done this, principle two.
Go to the Lord. Go to the Lord. For a directive, stop, all right, and look up. All right? Go to the Lord. Proverbs 3, 5 through 6 says, trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways, acknowledge Him and He will make straight your paths. It says, trust in the Lord wholeheartedly. Don't lean on your own insight. Don't lean on your own gut when you come to make decisions. The Lord is calling us to look up and to acknowledge Him. And if you acknowledge Him, if you seek Him earnestly in decision making, it says, your paths will be made straight.
It will go easier. It will go straighter for you, generally. The wise realize this. The wise realize this. That's why they pause in decision making and they turn to the Lord for insight. My question is, do we do that?
And think of some of the decisions that you make in life. And ask yourself, did you acknowledge the Lord in a way that was earnest? That you came to Him earnestly seeking Him when it came to time to buy a house? Or when it came time to choose a job? Or to say yes to a date? Or to say yes to marriage?
Or who to marry? When it came to decisions for your kids and where they might need to go to school? When it came to retirement? Did you take the time to earnestly seek the Lord? Or did you rely on your own insight? Did you humble yourself before the Lord?
One of the easiest first questions for, first actions for you to take. And questions for you to ask. Is what does the Bible say? When it comes to a decision, open up His word. And a lot of times, the Bible speaks very clearly on some things. And once it speaks clearly, you can just respond.
So it says, you have the question, should I move in with my girlfriend? No. The Bible speaks clearly. No, you should not. It says, flee from sexual immorality. You should not put yourself in a position where that would be a consistent temptation.
You shouldn't put yourself in a position that might mar your Christian witness. No, you should not. The Bible speaks clearly to that. You might ask myself, oh man, should I report this income to the IRS? At tax time? Should I admit that I made this on that?
Yes. Yes, you should. The Bible speaks clearly to this. Pay to Caesar. Jesus teaches it. Pay to Caesar what is Caesar's.
Pay to the Lord's what is the Lord's. Absolutely. Pay your taxes honestly. We should seek the word on this when it comes to decisions. And as we seek God's word, as we open it up, we should also pray. And pray earnestly.
Now, here's what happens. If you're a Christian, you've been following Jesus for a little bit, you know this proverb. You're familiar with it. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. So when it comes to make decisions, maybe you've got a meeting that you need to, it's going to have an important decision.
What do you do before your meeting? You pray. Right? Got an email that comes in that's going to be kind of how you write this, how you decide on this is going to be important. You pray. And what happens is, is that we reduce this proverb to a mere checking of a box.
Where it's like, okay, I prayed. I'm good. Now I decide. Now, I'm not against praying before meetings. We do it as elders. All right?
I'm not against praying before making decisions. But what happens is, is that if we reduce this, there's just a formula where it's just, I need to just come before the Lord, pray, and then figure it out myself. You're still operating out of your own gut. You're still reasoning from yourself. As opposed to earnestly seeking the Lord and listening to what he might have to say. Listening to how he might speak into the situation.
Proverbs 16, 1 through 3 says, We need more than operating off of our gut. We need more than checking a box to pray. We need to earnestly seek the Lord. Because our, as it says, our plans are not wise. Our plans that come from our heart are not wise. They are not good.
We need the Lord to weigh, it says, our spirit. Now, from the Hebrew into English, the literal, literal, literal word is spirit. But what the meaning is being conveyed there, which you'll see in other translations, is motive. That your motives might be weighed. Part of decision making and coming before the Lord and seeking him is having the Lord weigh your motives. Giving the time and the space to see whether your motives are self-centered.
To whether they're self-interested. And they're not in the interest of the good of others. You need time and space for the Holy Spirit to work on your heart. And you really need the Holy Spirit to be a prosecuting attorney. That actually shows and reveals what's going on in your heart. There are times where my wife and I, we get in a disagreement or an argument about a decision that needs to be made.
And we go back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. And we've got to take some time to keep thinking apart. And it's mostly I need time for her to realize that she's wrong. And that she would come to her senses and realize that I have great wisdom. And based off of a brilliant track history, you guys. So I give her time.
And in the quiet before the Lord, he starts to work. He starts to prod on my heart. And when it happens, guys, when this happens, I'm not saying this is good. But when it happens, I just get frustrated. Because I'm like, ugh. I've seen where this goes.
I know it's happening here. He's going to start revealing sin. He's going to start pointing at things. He's going to start saying, 1 Peter 3, 7. Live with your wife in an understanding way. And you haven't been doing that.
He's going to start showing my self-interest and my selfish ways. And I'm going to have to repent. And it's going to be tiresome. And I'm prideful. And I want to be right. But I might be wrong here.
You see how when you give this space before the Lord, how he goes to work on our souls. We need time for that. He's going to weigh our selfish motives. He's going to weigh our self-interest. And that takes more than a quick prayer. That takes earnestly opening up the Bible, singing him a prayer, listening for the Lord to speak.
We need this space. We need to stop. We need to look up. And what the Proverbs teaches next, in abundance, is this third principle. Go to one another. Go to one another.
So stop, look up, and then look side to side. The Proverbs over and over and over. There are a lot of Proverbs on going to those around you. It's not just two heads are better than one. It is multiple heads are better than your own. And we have to buy into this idea that a multitude of counselors, a multitude of advisors is good for us.
Proverbs 12, 15, we read that earlier. It says, the way of a fool is right in his own eyes. But a wise man listens to advice. We need advice that is not of ourselves. Proverbs 15, 22 says, without counsel, plans fail. But with many advisors, they succeed.
Proverbs 11, 14 says, where there is no guidance, a people falls. But in an abundance, in an abundance of counselors, there is safety. An abundance of counselors, an abundance of voices speaking into your decisions. The problem is, is that we are very Western-minded. We are very individualistic. That's how we're built as Westerners.
We think within ourselves. We don't think with a communal lens. And when you take the fact that we're Western individualists, and you multiply that by the fact that we are Americans, we are very confident. Our students are ranked like, it changes every year, 25th in math, 27th in science. You know what they're ranked number one in? Confidence.
We are, and that's not just students. That's all the way up. We are a very confident bunch. I'm going to confidently celebrate how America is great today. With grilling out and with fireworks. Amen.
That is awesome. But the problem is, is when you take that mindset of confidence, overlap by the fact that we are Western individualists, we don't think with a communal lens. We don't openly invite people into decision-making. We think that's a solo act. And the Proverbs aggressively, aggressively comes at that. We see it over and over and over again, how this plays out even in our own church.
You've seen it in community groups. All of a sudden, somebody shows up to a community group, and they say, all right, you guys, taking a job, and we're moving away next week. And it's like, what? You've been in this group for three years? Did you talk to anybody in our group? Have you sought wisdom or counsel from anybody in this?
Did you just up and decide to leave and not tell anyone beforehand? No, the Proverbs says that's foolishness. Someone will show up and they'll say, I'm engaged. And it's like, to do what? Engaged to a human? To that guy you've been dating for a month?
Did you talk to anyone about this? You have people in your life that love you, that care for you. Did you seek us out on this? People say, I'm decided that, you know, they'll send an email or they'll post it on a group chat and say, all right, guys, I've decided we're going to check out another church. And we've been here for a few years, but we decide, we pray, and we feel like this is where the Lord's leading us. And it's like, what?
You haven't talked to anybody in your group. Did you talk to the pastors? Have you talked to anyone? You just decided all by yourself that you're just going to leave and you did it in an email? And let me pause for a second. Coaching for those of you that are on the receiving end of this.
Don't clap. When someone says they made a decision that was big and they just come and present it as fact and they're moving on, don't like it in a group chat. Don't clap and say, pray and then it goes well. And it's like, no, no, no, pause. There's correction neither. The Proverbs aggressively corrects this mindset.
It calls us to trust in the collective wisdom in one another. Trust in the Holy Spirit in one another. So when somebody says, the Holy Spirit told me, it's like maybe there's some biblical precedent for that. But the Holy Spirit is in one another. When you have five people that love you, that know you, that know your track record, that know your history, that know your sin and have the Holy Spirit in them. And you have openly just said, the Lord has told me something.
You need to be cautious. As if the Lord only speaks to you and not those around you. We need to hear this. We need to not rely on our own intuition. On our own experience before the Lord. We need this.
Y'all, I, this trust in the abundance of a counselor's, that there's safety in that. I live by this. All right. I make decisions sometimes that are too hasty. As you heard at the very beginning of this. I make decisions too quickly.
I don't acknowledge the Lord enough. I'm not earnestly seeking Him enough. But I live by this. Because I just accept that I'm fairly ignorant in a lot of circumstances. I've embraced that. That I'm a generalist.
I know, if you know me, I know a little about a lot of things. I'm not what you would call an expert. And I just, I find safety in other people. I reach out to our pastors on a regular basis. I talk to my group. I'm talking to people from Texas.
To Louisville. All across the country. I want to make sure that I've got guardrails. That I'm thinking through this carefully. We need this. We need to reject this Western individualistic.
I can do this on my own Lone Ranger mindset. Because the Proverbs looks at that and says, it's foolish. It says, you are a fool for thinking that you could do this all on your own. We have blind spots here. And the Proverbs aggressively corrects this. And my hope is, is we would not hear this and reject it.
But we let the Spirit go to work on us and realize we need the collective wisdom in one another. Proverbs 18, 1 through 2. It says, whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire. He breaks out against all sound judgment. A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion. So if you can humble yourself to actually talk to others.
To invite them in to speak in. You should listen. You should not be just concerned with offering your opinion and using them as a sounding board. You ever talk to somebody where that's the case, where you're talking to them and it's clear they're not listening. All they're doing is they're formulating their next opinion. They're formulating their next thought.
And they're not listening. It's foolishness. Now the Bible calls us to listen. When someone's talking to you, listen. Actively fight to listen to what they are saying. And they may be saying things that are corrective in heart.
If they love you enough, that's the hope. Proverbs 10, 17 says, One of the reasons I love our church is because we don't pedestal our pastors. In fact, we probably, to the other extreme, we kind of shame each other. As you've heard over and over again, if you've been with us long enough. I love the fact that we don't pedestal one another because it doesn't elevate us to a place where someone could come to us and with the right heart and mindset correct us. I've been corrected by other pastors.
I've been corrected by group members. I've been corrected by friends and family in this church. And I need this. I need correction. I need people in my life that are pointing and saying, I don't think you're thinking about this the right way. I need people, this happened about a month ago, where my wife and I, we got an argument about something in front of our group.
We feel comfortable enough to have that argument. And my posture was off. And then later, one of our group members just said, hey bro, you were completely off there. We need this type of correction. You need people in your life that will do this. It's one of the reasons that I love Raz Bradley.
Raz Bradley is one of our pastors. He's more behind the scenes guy. He's really annoying. And I invite his annoying takes into my life all the time. We think differently. We operate differently.
We look at situations differently. And all the time I'm calling him. I'm messaging him. I'm like, Raz, help me think of this. And it's obnoxious. Because he's going to push on things.
He's going to prod in my heart. And he's going to tell me I'm wrong. He's going to tell me other things as well. But I need that. I need that kind of voice in my life. I openly invite it.
Because I know I need this type of reproof in my life. I need people speaking into my life. And sometimes what they might say isn't helpful. I'm not saying that off the back end of telling you about Raz. But I'm telling you, sometimes you need to be discerning.
Because sometimes what they say is not correct. Proverbs 14, 15 says, The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps. So invite counselors. Invite advisors. Invite people into your life. Invite your group to speak in.
And sometimes they're not going to say the most helpful things. It's going to happen. They're not inerrant. They will make mistakes. You'll hear somebody in group. You'll tell a story.
And all of a sudden they'll go, You know, I think you losing your wedding ring was a sign. I think that's a sign. I think what God might be telling you is, Is that you're not finding happiness in your marriage. And that you might be rethinking all of this. And it's like, No. No, no, no, no.
That's dumb. It happens. Sometimes people don't know what to say. They fill the void with things. Alright? You listen.
And you take what they say. And you filter through the word of God. You filter through the collective wisdom of one another. That's what we're called to do. Last point. I've cut out a ton of Proverbs on this.
I mean, just one more point on this. Younger people. And we qualify this. Even younger people. If you are college-aged and below. So if you're college-age, high schoolers, middle schools.
Right now. Listen up. I want you to hear this proverb. 15.5 A fool despises his father's instruction. But whoever heeds reproof is prudent.
Don't despise your parents' instruction. Your dad has lived twice as long as you. Your mom has twice as much life experience as you. Do not just say they're stupid and move on. Listen. If you are younger, you are ignorant.
And that's okay. No. I don't mean that to be a joke. I mean that very seriously. It is okay to be ignorant. Part of wisdom when you're younger is acknowledging that you're ignorant.
And that's okay. You don't know what you don't know. It's part of growing up. But for you to just openly and quickly reject your parents' wisdom is foolishness. And if you think, if you think they're wrong and your parents are not inerrant, they do make mistakes. If you think they're wrong, open up the Bible.
Go to the Word of God. Come to them. I'm sure they would love to open up the Bible with you and study it. And if you keep studying the Word, you know, you want to invite a community group leader or a pastor in, that's fine. But trust your parents.
They are not. They've lived longer than you. All right. That's enough on one another. Stop. Look up.
Look side to side. Four. Keep learning. Keep learning. And there's kind of a looking forward and looking backward approach to this. So let's look at the look forward approach first in keeping learning.
Proverbs 18.15 says, An intelligent heart acquires knowledge. And the ear of the wise seeks knowledge. Intelligence is not settling for what you know. It's not settling there. It's realizing you don't know enough. Some of the most intelligent, some of the wisest people are the most curious people.
They're curious. They're not threatened by new knowledge. They want to learn. They want to grow. They want to research. They want to figure stuff out.
Don't rely on your current bank of knowledge. Don't stop learning. Keep researching. Grow alongside of everything that we've talked about already. Learn and do the research. So you have a job that pays $15,000 or more in a different city.
Have you done the research? Have you done the research that possibly moving to that new city, that housing is double the price? Especially right now. And if it's double the price, that means of what you normally have, that's double usually the monthly payment of what you normally have. So if you're going to pay $1,000 a month more to live there, that's $12,000 right there a year.
That $15,000 pay raise just got smaller. There's cost of living. There's all kinds of factors to consider. But that takes research. That takes learning. That takes asking people.
That takes a ton of learning. Some of you got STEMI money. Stimulus money. And you got real excited. And you said, you know what? I just got $8,000 this year.
Dogecoin. And you went all in on some crypto. Which if you don't know what crypto is, it's fine. If you never knew about crypto, you'd still be fine. I'm not against crypto. I have some.
But you went all in and said, Dogecoin. I put it all in. Did you do the research? Besides listening to one podcast? Did you actually seek out financial advisors? Which we have in our church family.
Did you think about this before you put all your money in Dogecoin? Which hasn't been going as great lately. It takes learning and searching. Seeking the Proverbs and their wisdom on this. Going to the internet with a ton of caution. The internet has a lot of information.
To navigate it wisely will help you learn about things. You need to seek. You need to learn. You need to grow. And you also not just need looking forward in learning. You need to look backwards and learn from your history.
And learn from history in general. Proverbs 26, 11. It says, Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly. Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his mistakes. Have you ever seen a dog do this? If you haven't, I've got one.
It's disgusting. They vomit. And they stare at it. And they think, you know what? Encore. It's gross.
And that grossness you just felt is what the Proverbs is trying to convey. If you are willing to repeat your folly, that's the picture. It's a picture of foolish ridiculousness. The last 20 years of our country has driven me nuts because we've just got both parties. That's why I feel like I can say this. Both parties have just spent trillions and trillions of dollars we don't have.
And it's like, have we learned from history that civilizations, that countries who mount this kind of debt, it doesn't end well? Well, right? If you want to debate modern monetary theory later, you can with me. But we personally don't learn from this. It's not just cultural. We don't learn from our mistakes.
We make bad investments. We take the same shortcuts over and over and over again. We hang out with the same people that are toxic for us. Like someone who used to get drunk and high with the same crew of people, takes a minute and steps away from them, and starts growing them more of Jesus, and they go and hang out with them again. And they're like, oh, I've just fallen back into getting high. And it's just like, wait, of course you have.
Like, just, we don't learn from it. We don't know ourselves well enough. We don't learn enough about ourselves to look backwards and to see the mistakes that we have made, to see where we are weak, to see where we need to, we don't think about this enough. And the proverb says, like a dog that turns to his vomit is those of us who do not learn from our own history, that do not learn from our own mistakes, that do not protect ourselves and insulate ourselves from foolishness and from sinfulness and from waywardness that we're prone to. No, we've got to learn from our history. Look forward.
Learn as much as you can. Look backward. Learn from your history. And the fifth and final principle that the Proverbs puts forward is trust the sovereignty of God in this side. Trust God's sovereignty, his rule and his reign and his control over all things. Trust him in this side.
Proverbs 16.9 says, The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. You can make plan and plan after plan. God will establish your steps. He is sovereign. He is in control over every single choice you make. Proverbs 16.33 says, A lot is cast into the lap.
So the most equivalent we have is dice. But essentially they would use this in decision making in certain circumstances in this context. The lot is cast into the lap, but every decision is from the Lord. God is sovereign over every single aspect. We need to believe this, that God is sovereign over every decision. Now, that doesn't absolve us from choosing wisely.
Because what happens is, especially for people that are comfortable with the sovereignty of God. They'll just say, you know what? I got door A. I got door B. I got a sovereign. A.
Boom. And it's like, no. You're like, that's God's will either way, right? You misunderstand the will of God. That you're talking about the greater overarching will of God that is sovereign in control over all things. Will has multiple uses in the Bible.
There's God's immediate will for you in your life. His immediate will for you is your sanctification. You're going to be more like Christ. And you're not being foolish. So, no. You can't just say, either one.
Boom. It's God's will anyways. No. Absolutely no. You are misunderstanding it. You are still called to walk carefully.
But my gut says is that most people are probably not like that in our church family. It's my gut. Which I said earlier might not be the best thing. My intuition is that we probably, that's not how we operate. Most of us probably. And we probably think through some of this stuff well.
And I know that some of you, even more so, get very anxious about decisions. And maybe you've done all, you've stopped and you've looked up and you've prayed and you've sought the word. And you've talked to other people in our church. You live in community and you have people speaking into you. You hear all these voices. You've done the research.
You've looked at your past history. You're looking for it. And you're trying to figure it all out. And you just get paralyzed. It's like, I don't know what to do. Am I doing God's will if I choose this, if I do that?
And if that's you, I just want to pause and very clearly say, if you have gone faithfully about this, if you've acted wisely in this, decide. Trust the Lord. And then make a decision. And then go to bed. We trust in the sovereignty of God. We believe this, that He ultimately works for our good.
And we know this because He ultimately worked for our good at the cross. He ultimately worked for our good at the work of the empty tomb. He ultimately works for the good of wayward sinners that He pursues and claims as His own. He ultimately works for our good as Christians because He cares for you. He loves you. He holds you.
He's near to you. He ultimately works for our good. And if that is true, and we absolutely believe it is true, you can make a decision and go to bed. Because it may be difficult. It may not work as well as you think it might. And it may bring about suffering.
But we believe this, that God works for our good. And if that is true, and you've acted wisely, you can make a decision and then rest and sleep and move on. We need to grow in this, you guys. We need to grow in being a church that makes wise decisions, that humbles ourselves to these principles. Don't just say yes to somebody who asks you on a date without stopping for a second. Don't do it.
Don't just say, I'm going to take the job. Without earnestly seeking the Lord and word and prayer, He has wise things to say to you. Don't just move your family to another church or elsewhere without talking to your group, without talking to people in your life. Don't make unsound financial decisions on a whim. Do the research. Think critically.
Invite others into it. Make wise decisions. Trust in the sovereignty of God. He works for your good. The band is going to come up. And I just want to take a few moments and reflect as we prepare to respond in worship.
The reality is, is that many of us have made very poor decisions. And I just want to tell you very clearly that the bad decisions you have made, there's grace for your failure. There's grace for your failure to stop. There's grace for your failure to seek the Lord, to bring others in. For those of you that box people out, I don't know your story. You might have some, you might have some people you trusted in the past, some Christians you trust in the past that hurt you.
I'm not discounting that experience. I am saying that God works through a flawed and broken people. And that ultimately, if you trust Him in His Word, it will go better for you. If you, if you, instead of just going out on your own and deciding on your own, we need to grow in this. We have grace for our foolishness. But we also have the Word of God that corrects us.
My hope is, is that as we respond to the Word of God this morning, that we would not argue with the Spirit, but we would let Him convict. And in the conviction that we receive, that we would respond. And we grow in being wise decision makers. Let me pray. Lord, you are good. You work for our good.
And you call us to wisdom. You call us to be people that make wise decisions. Our decisions affect not just us, but others. And we need your wisdom. We need your correction. We need your correction.
We need your power so that we might in our repentance grow. Lord, I ask that you would absolutely go to work on our hearts. Make us a people that is wise. In Jesus' name, amen.