Decisions, Decisions

INTRODUCTION

• John Maxwell shares the following story. The personal manager had advertised a job opening, and a large group of applicants was waiting in her waiting room. The first young man was ushered into her office, and she began explaining the job to him. “We need someone in this job who can make fast decisions,” she said, “someone who can really think on his feet. Can you show me that you’re capable of doing that?” Without a word, the young man got to his feet, stuck his head out the door, and announced to the waiting applicants, “Okay, you guys. You can all go home- the job’s just been filled.”

• That was a quick, risky decision!

• Today we are going to deal with a subject that each one of us deals with each and every day. Several times a day we are called to make decisions.

• Life is about making decisions. Each day we all have to make decisions. Some of the decisions we make are of little or no consequence. What am I going to eat fro breakfast, what car will I drive to work. Others can be life changing or life ending. Am I going to go to that party, drink and drive home? Am I going to take that person up on their offer that would cause me to commit adultery? Am I going to smoke that first cigarette, something that will have an adverse affect on my life span?

• How many people do you know who have ruined their lives or ended them because they made a bad decision? How many people do you know who when they reach a crossroads in their life, they take the wrong turn and end up regretting it.

• Do you know people who seem to always make good decisions in life? What was the difference between the person who seems to make the wrong harmful choices verses the person who seems more times than not to get it right?

• For some of you today, you have had your parents there to make many of your decisions for you. For our graduates, you will be living a more independent life once you leave for College or leave your homes to go out into the job market.

• As parents, it is our job to raise our children so that when they leave our homes they can make wise decisions in their lives.

• Making good decisions in life can be very tough and sometimes very confusing.

• Today we are going to look at some of the principles we can see in the life of Jesus that should help us to make better decisions in our lives.

• Today we will look at five principles we can glean from the life of Jesus.

SERMON

I. JESUS HELD TO HIS OBJECTIVES (LUKE 19:10)

• It is impossible for us to make difficult decisions without a sense of personal destiny, without a sense of knowing where we want to go in life.

• Jesus knew His destiny was the cross and would not allow Himself to be knocked off that track, as painful as it was going to be.

• We make a lot of our bad decisions because we do not have a sense of destiny or a sense of knowing where we want to go in life.

• I know early in my life I made some choices that shut some doors of opportunity for me. Had I thought out my decisions based on what I wanted to do in my life at the time, I would hope I would have done things different.

• Jesus had a keen sense of His destiny and what He was called to do. LUKE 19:10 "For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."

• MAT 17:22-23 And while they were gathering together in Galilee, Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men; and they will kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day." And they were deeply grieved.

• MARK 2:17 And hearing this, Jesus said to them, "it is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

• These are but a few verses where we can see Jesus knew what He was here for.

• How did this affect His life choices?

• There was a pretty good sized segment of society who wanted Jesus to overthrow the Roman governmental control, but Jesus decided not to do that because it did not line up with the purpose of His life.

• Many people wanted to make Jesus a King, (John 6:15) but Jesus refused to let that happen because that choice would have interfered with what He knew He was called to do.